Russia and Ukraine announced on Tuesday that they had exchanged 90 prisoners of war from each side, following mediation by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“At the end of the negotiation process, 90 Russian servicemen who were in danger of death in captivity were repatriated from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram. “In return, 90 prisoners of war from the Ukrainian armed forces were handed over,” he added, specifying that the exchange was carried out under the “humanitarian mediation” of the UAE.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the exchange, posting photographs of men surrounded by yellow and blue national flags on Telegram. He said those released included defenders of the 2022 siege of Mariupol and soldiers who fought in the area of the damaged Chernobyl nuclear power plant at the beginning of the conflict.
Russia is holding several other Americans, including Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, arrested last year for violating the “foreign agents” law, and ex-Marine Paul Whelan, who is serving time. sixteen years in prison for espionage, a charge he disputes.
As his trial opens this Wednesday, Evan Gershkovich could be the subject of an agreement between the White House and the Kremlin. A senior Russian diplomatic official, Sergei Riabkov, revealed last week that Moscow had made a proposal to Washington for an exchange of prisoners, without revealing the exact outline of this offer. According to him, “the ball is in the United States’ court.”
Vladimir Putin, for his part, has already acknowledged that negotiations were underway with Washington and implied that he was demanding the release of Vadim Krassikov, sentenced to life in prison in Germany for having murdered in Berlin in 2019, on behalf of Moscow, a former Chechen separatist commander
Hello everyone. Like every day, the editorial staff of 20 minutes is mobilized to give you all the information on the conflict. This Wednesday, American journalist Evan Gershkovich, detained in Russia for fifteen months on espionage charges that he denies, must appear before a court in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, for the first day of his trial which will be held in camera.
Report to Wall Street Journal and aged 32, he was arrested in March 2023 by the Russian security services (FSB), becoming the first Western journalist since Soviet times to be accused of espionage in Russia. Investigators accuse him of having collected sensitive information on behalf of the CIA on one of the country’s main arms manufacturers, the tank producer Uralvagonzavod.