FT: Ukraine and Russia have begun negotiations on the exchange of prisoners captured in the Kursk region

Ukraine and Russia began negotiations on the exchange of prisoners captured in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation.

The Financial Times writes about it.

Ukrainian military intelligence confirmed to the newspaper that Ukraine is already working on the exchange. The day before, the human rights commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets said on the telethon that the Russian ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova had contacted him to start discussing the exchange of prisoners of war.

Kyiv has not disclosed the exact number of Russian prisoners captured during the Kursk operation, but government officials and soldiers at the border told the FT that it was in the "hundreds". The British publication Independent, citing an unnamed Ukrainian colonel, writes that almost 2 000 Russian soldiers were captured.

An unnamed official of the Security Service of Ukraine stated that only special agents of the department captured 102 Russian soldiers from the 488th motorized rifle regiment and the Chechen unit "Akhmat" in the Kursk region. According to him, this is the largest number of prisoners captured at one time.

The capture of Russian prisoners of war, the publication suggests, will strengthen Kyivʼs calls to return thousands of its prisoners from Russia. Although Ukraine does not officially disclose the goals of the Kursk operation, President Zelensky has repeatedly praised the Ukrainian military for replenishing the "exchange fund" for the exchange of prisoners with Russia.

Russia has previously said that Moscow may end the exchange of prisoners. But Lubinets said his conversation with his Russian counterpart Moskalkova gave him hope that talks on the matter could move forward.

The Kursk operation

On the morning of August 6, Russian telegram channels began to spread information about the battles in the Kursk region of Russia (bordering Sumy region) and the alleged major offensive of the Armed Forces.

Until August 12, Ukraine did not officially confirm the operation in the region, until the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi announced that Ukraine controls almost 1 000 km² of the Kursk region of Russia. The exact number of captured Russians is unknown, but high-ranking Ukrainian officials (in particular, Syrskyi himself) stated that hundreds of Russian soldiers were captured on certain days of the operation.

For self-defense, the Ukrainian military formed a buffer zone on the territory of the Kursk region. Ukraine plans to open humanitarian corridors there for the evacuation of civilians, admit representatives of the UN and the Red Cross, and arrange the supply of food and medicine.