News / Russia

Kremlin hails prisoner swap with Ukraine as positive step

Monday, 09 September 2019 3:47 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 09 September 2019 3:47 PM ]

A police convoy escorts two buses with tinted windows leaving the high-security prison of Lefortovo on September 7, 2019 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by AFP)

The Kremlin has hailed the exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine as a positive step and a reason for cautious optimism on improving bilateral ties.

“It was an exchange of detained persons. We see the exchange as a positive step and welcome it,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

“It gives reason for cautious optimism regarding the further work on ways for normalization of relations between Russia and Ukraine, for one thing, and of course most importantly, for conditions to implement Minsk agreements," he added.

Russia and Ukraine began a major prisoner exchange on Saturday, a move that is expected to ease tensions between the two sides and pave the way for serious negotiations over a years-long conflict in eastern Ukraine.

PressTV-Russia, Ukraine swap prisoners in landmark exchange

Russia and Ukraine begin to exchange prisoners in a move to ease tensions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the prisoner swap would be "a good step forward towards the normalization (of relations)" with Kiev.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also said the swap had been agreed with his Russian counterpart and that he hoped for a soon-to-be-held meeting between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany to help “finish this horrible war” with pro-Russia forces in the Ukraine’s volatile east.

The armed confrontation began when a wave of protests in Ukraine overthrew a democratically-elected pro-Russia government and replaced it with a pro-West administration.

The majority of the people in the east, mainly ethnic Russians, refused to endorse the new administration that took over at the time, and turned the two regions of Donetsk and Lugansk — collectively known as the Donbass — into self-proclaimed republics.

The war has so far claimed some 13,000 lives since 2014.

Kiev and its Western allies accuse Moscow of having a hand in the crisis, but Russia denies the allegations.

Relations between Moscow and Kiev have deteriorated since 2014, when the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea rejoined Russia following a referendum, where more than 90 percent of participants voted in favor of the move.

Kiev, along with the West, brands the reunification as annexation of Ukrainian land by Russia.

In siding with Ukraine, the EU, and some other Western countries have followed Washington's lead in leveling several rounds of sanctions against Moscow.

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