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RUSSIA-UKRAINE-CONFLICT-PRISONERS
Preparations underway for Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange: state TV
MOSCOW, Sept 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A long-awaited exchange of prisoners
between Moscow and Kiev has begun, Russian state television reported on
Saturday, broadcasting footage of buses leaving a jail in the capital.
“Buses have left the Lefortovo jail within the framework of preparations
for a prisoner exchange,” the Rossiya 24 news channel said.
AFP journalists at the scene saw two buses with tinted windows leaving the
high-security prison in Moscow under a police convoy.
The channel said the buses had arrived at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, where
there is a terminal for government flights.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the “large-scale”
prisoner exchange with Ukraine was being finalised.
The Russian leader said the swap would be “a huge step towards normalising
relations” with Kiev.
It would be the first major exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and
Russia since the conflict over eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky raised the prospect of a prisoner
swap after the comedian-turned-politician swept to power in May.
His election has revived peace efforts, with the leaders of Russia,
Ukraine, Germany and France expected to meet this month for talks.
Last week media reports said the prisoner exchange was imminent and some
Ukrainian prisoners had been moved to Moscow from their jails.
The apparent preparations then stalled.
It is unclear who will be part of the swap and Moscow has been tight-
lipped.
But reports have suggested up to 35 prisoners on both sides could be
exchanged.
The head of the defence team for 24 Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia
last year said they would be part of the exchange.
“According to my information, they were put on a bus. All 24 of them,”
Nikolai Polozov told AFP, adding that he expected them to arrive in Ukraine
“in the next few hours”.
Russia has been holding the sailors since seizing three vessels last
November in the most dangerous direct clash between Russia and Ukraine in
years.
Among those who could be released by Russia could be film director and
activist Oleg Sentsov, 43, who has become Ukraine’s most famous political
prisoner.
He was arrested in 2014 and has been serving a 20-year sentence in a
Russian Arctic penal colony for planning “terrorist attacks” in Moscow-
annexed Crimea.
Reports emerged last week that Sentsov had been moved to Moscow.
Ukraine could hand over Kyrylo Vyshynsky, a journalist at Russia’s RIA
Novosti state news agency who was released on bail late last month pending a
trial for “high treason”.
A Ukrainian court this week also released from detention a man
investigators have described as a key witness in the downing of flight MH17.
The release of Vladimir Tsemakh, an alleged air defence specialist for pro-
Russian separatists, prompted concern from the Netherlands that he may avoid
questioning.
Some 13,000 people have been killed in Ukraine’s conflict with Russian-
backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which broke out shortly after Moscow
annexed Crimea in 2014.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1444 hrs