Representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the MOU and the Coordination Headquarters Andrey Yusov in comments Radio Liberty stated that an exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine was supposed to take place on Wednesday, January 24, but it is not happening yet:
“I can state that the exchange planned for today is not yet taking place.”
According to the representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate, information that prisoners of war could have been on the Il-76 plane, which crashed in the Belgorod region, voiced by the Russian side, is now being verified.
After falls Russian Il-76 in the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation, a number of Russian media disseminated statements by the chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Defense Andrei Kartapolov that it allegedly contained dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war who were being taken for exchange. Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets reportedwhich clarifies the situation.
Kartapolov also said that prisoners of war were allegedly transported on two planes: the other Il-76 with 80 prisoners on board managed to turn around after the crash of the first airliner in the Belgorod region. Kartapolov also claimed that the parties were preparing an exchange in the “192 to 192” format, but now, according to him, prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine “will apparently be put on pause.”
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