President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the issue of the release of Ukrainian prisoners in the Russian Federation has been stalled, and believes that the only way out may be negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Unfortunately, it is completely stalled. Today, apart from direct negotiations with the Russian president regarding Crimean prisoners, I see no other way out. Perhaps we can develop new solutions during the Crimean platform,” Zelensky said in an interview with Ukrainian journalists. which was published on Thursday by the “Ukrainian Truth” edition.
He said that he raises the issue of prisoners with “all leaders in any format of meetings.”
“The Russians separate the lists of those who are in ORDLO (separate areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions – ed.), And the lists of our people who are in Crimea or already in Russia. We, on the contrary, are combining these lists and talking about that the issue of exchanging everyone for everyone is an exchange, including Crimeans”, Zelensky said.
The President of Ukraine also called on all the leaders of the countries that support Kiev on the Crimea issue to work actively and “put pressure” on Russia.
“We are ready for exchanges and for any steps to return our Crimeans,” Zelensky said.