Russian presidential candidate and incumbent head of state Vladimir Putin has said at a meeting with his confidants that the Russian side will not stop prisoner exchanges with Ukraine.
According to him, the Russian side does not intend to stop the exchanges even after Ukraine shot down an Il-76 with a Russian crew and AFU military prisoners.
“Will it stop the exchanges or not? We will not stop. We have our own guys to take back,” he said.
According to him, the ratio of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia is about 10 to 1, and possibly more.
On 24 January, the Russian Defence Ministry said that Ukrainian forces had hit a Russian Il-76 military transport plane carrying captured AFU military personnel over Belgorod Region with an anti-aircraft missile system.
On board were six crew members, 65 AFU military for exchange and three Russian servicemen accompanying them. All of them died.