Zelenskyy says Ukraine moving to resume prisoner swaps that could free 1,200 captives – Firstpost

Ukraine is pushing to resume a prisoner exchange with Russia that could lead to the return home of 1,200 Ukrainian detainees, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, a day after his national security chief reported progress in talks.

“We are counting on the resumption of POW exchanges,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter, “a number of meetings, negotiations and calls are currently taking place to ensure this.”

Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Rustam Umerov said on Saturday that efforts to resume exchanges have advanced through consultations brokered by Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. He said all parties agreed to activate a prisoner-exchange deal held in Istanbul to release 1,200 Ukrainians. Russia has not commented yet.

The Istanbul Protocol, established in 2022 with Turkish mediation, outlines a framework for larger, coordinated exchanges between Kiev and Moscow. Thousands of prisoners have been exchanged under the system, although transfers have slowed in recent months.

Umerov said technical consultations would take place soon to work out “procedural and organizational details”, adding that he hoped returning prisoners could “celebrate the New Year and Christmas holidays at home – at the family table and with their relatives.”

Meanwhile, Russian drone strikes damaged energy infrastructure, including a solar power plant, in Ukraine’s Odessa region overnight, according to the State Emergency Service.

Ukraine has been battling heavy Russian airstrikes, causing blackouts as winter approaches. Ukraine’s air force said Sunday that the latest barrage – 176 drones and one missile – had been launched overnight, and said 139 drones had been shot down or disabled.

On the battlefield, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops had captured two settlements in the southern Zaporizhia region. Russia’s larger, better-equipped forces stepped up their offensive, squeezing Ukraine’s depleted forces across a front of about 1,250 kilometers (800 miles).

Despite heavy Russian losses, Moscow has slowly continued to make gains.

However, Ukraine retaliated on Sunday, hitting a major oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region and a warehouse storing drones for the elite Rubicon unit in occupied Donetsk, Ukraine’s General Staff said. Russian officials have not confirmed the attacks.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 57 Ukrainian drones overnight.