Moscow ready to carry out daily POW exchanges with Kyiv

MOSCOW - Moscow is ready to carry out daily war prisoner exchanges with Ukraine based on the schedule agreed in Istanbul, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

"The Russian Defense Ministry confirms its readiness to exchange Ukrainian captives for Russian service members on an everyday basis in accordance with the schedule agreed in Istanbul on June 2. Unfortunately, Ukraine is not ready to carry out swaps at such a pace," according to the statement.

During their latest round of talks in Turkiye's Istanbul, Russia and Ukraine agreed on an "all-for-all" exchange involving seriously ill and wounded prisoners, as well as soldiers under the age of 25.

The ministry said that "the first group of Russian servicemen under the age of 25 was returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime" on June 9. Other swaps took place on June 10 and June 12. Neither side has announced the specific number of prisoners released in the first three rounds of prisoner exchanges.

In accordance with the Istanbul agreements, Russia launched a humanitarian operation to repatriate the bodies of over 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers and exchange prisoners of war. The first batch of 1,212 bodies was handed over to Kyiv on June 11. Russia received 27 of fallen soldiers.