Ukrainian and Russian representatives will meet in Turkey this week for talks on humanitarian issues including a potential prisoner swap.
Turkey’s chief commissioner Seref Malkoc announced Tuesday that Turkey would host two days of talks between Ukrainian and Russian counterparts this week to discuss a series of humanitarian issues including a potential prisoner swap and setting up a humanitarian corridor.
Malkoc told reporters during a joint presser with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets in Ankara, that the two-day-talks will focus on incentives to ease the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“We will try to lay out a road map on children’s rights, human rights and the exchange of wounded and prisoners during the three-way meeting,” he said.
Malkoc stopped short of specifying a date for the talks but said that they would be held on the sidelines of an international human rights conference to be convened in Ankara on Wednesday and Thursday.
He added that the parties would also discuss efforts to set up a humanitarian corridor in Ukraine.
“There are prisoners in Russia. Women, children also have problems,” Lubinets said. “We could find solutions both for the civilian population and captured soldiers during these meetings.”
Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova also confirmed the talks, saying she would travel to Turkey this week, Russian state media reported.
Along with Saudi Arabia, Turkey mediated a major prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia in September last year. Moscow handed over more than 200 Ukrainians and 10 foreign nationals in exchange for the release of some 50 Russian and pro-Russian fighters, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s close ally Viktor Medvedchuk.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday that Turkey was continuing its engagements both with Kyiv and Moscow on a series of issues speaking during a joint presser with his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor in Pretoria.
Turkey has also hosted two rounds of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine so far. Russian and Ukrainian top diplomats gathered in Turkey last March in the first high-level contact between the two warring countries after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. The Russian and Ukrainian diplomats met for a fresh round of talks in Istanbul in the same month.
Turkey brokered a UN-deal between the two countries in July allowing Ukrainian grain and other products to reach world markets via a safe corridor set up in the Black Sea, averting a global food crisis.
Source : AI Monitor
