Ukraine, Russia complete long-awaited prisoner exchange

Bloomberg

Ukraine and Russia, one-time allies who’ve been locked in conflict since 2014, arranged a mass exchange of prisoners following long negotiations.
35 Ukrainians, including filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and 24 sailors, arrived home on Saturday from Russia, where they were kept in jails, some of them for years. Ukraine also released 35 prisoners, who have left for Russia.
“We have taken the first step, it was very difficult” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told journalists at Kyiv airport, where he was greeting the
prisoners. “I, as the president of Ukraine, and Russian President Vladimir Putin fulfilled everything we agreed on” during a phone conversation on August 7, he said.
The swap could be seen as a victory for Zelenskiy, who prioritised the safe return of his compatriots, including the sailors detained last year off the coast of Crimea, which Russian leader Vladimir Putin annexed five years ago.
But he also paid a price. In the run-up to the swap, Ukraine released Volodymyr Tsemakh, a key witness in the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in 2014, which killed 298 people. The Netherlands, which is leading the investigation, had asked for the person to be kept available for questioning as he was also a suspect, the NRC Handelsblad newspaper reported.
Zelenskiy said Tsemakh was fully interrogated before the release.
For Putin, the swap may demonstrate goodwill in renewed efforts to resolve the five-year war between Ukraine’s army and Kremlin-backed fighters on the two nations’ border. Russia, whose economy has slowed, is seeking the removal of sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union. Plans for a similar exchange of prisoners in July after a phone conversation between Zelenskiy and Putin fell through, prompting Ukraine to blame its neighbour.
A summit of leaders from Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine may take place in “coming weeks,” according to a statement released after the recent Group of Seven meeting. That would be the first time since 2016 that leaders of the four countries have met to discuss efforts to resolve the conflict, which has killed more than 13,000 people.
The gathering would aim to restart implementation of the long-stalled 2015 Minsk peace agreement.
“I hope this swap will lead to some progress in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia,” Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Russian upper house of parliament’s international affairs committee, told state TV.
The prisoner swap represents the first signs of a thaw in relations between Russia and Ukraine since Zelenskiy took office after his landslide election in April. Putin plans to invite Zelenskiy to Moscow for next year’s May 9 Victory Day parade marking the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, according to his foreign-policy aide.
“I hope we will have Normandy format meeting in nearest future,” Zelenskiy said, referring to a popular name for the four-nation summit. “We have to take steps to end this horrible war,” he said, adding Saturday “was just the first chapter.”