On Tuesday evening, Moscow and Kyiv announced that they had exchanged 90 prisoners of war from each camp, following mediation by the United Arab Emirates. This marked an unprecedented operation after more than two and a half years of conflict. The first direct meeting between Ukrainian and Russian representatives took place on the sidelines of this important exchange of prisoners of war, as announced by both sides.
During the exchange of prisoners of war, representatives of the Russian ombudsman’s office arrived for the first time to record possible human rights violations, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner said on Telegram on Wednesday. Dmytro Loubinets, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, explained that this joint work involved interviewing prisoners released from both the Russian and Ukrainian sides. This was a new initiative by Ukraine, to which the Russian side agreed for the first time.
Russian representative Tatiana Moskalkova stated on Telegram that Russian representatives met with a representative of the Ukrainian human rights commissioner to exchange information on possible options for the mutual return of civilians currently in detention centers. Russia and Ukraine have exchanged hundreds of prisoners since the Russian invasion began in February 2022 and regularly exchange the remains of soldiers killed on the front. At the end of April, Ukrainian and Russian officials met in Qatar for the first time since February 2022 to discuss the issue of children displaced by the war.
