Tension recedes between Russia and Ukraine. Announced two days ago by Vladimir Putin, a prisoner exchange involving 70 detainees was underway between the two countries on Saturday (September 7th). Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, as well as many soldiers, are part of the convoy, according to the director's lawyer and a Ukrainian government source. Both nations have been at loggerheads since the outbreak of a conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The Ukrainian government source told AFP that 35 prisoners from each country would be exchanged.
Earlier Saturday, Oleg Sentsov's Russian lawyer, Mark Feygin, also announced that his client was among the exchanged prisoners, who counted, according to [information], "24 sailors and 11 convicted Ukrainians" by Russian justice. The director and political activist was arrested in 2014 and sentenced to 20 years in a camp in the Russian Arctic region for "terrorist attacks" after Moscow's annexation of Crimea.
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По моим данным обмен на 35 человек. 24 моряка и 11 осуждённых украинцев: Сенцов, Сущенко, Панов, Кольченко, Клых, Карпюк, Гриб, Сизонович, Балух, Артур Панов, Бекиров.
Mark Feygin (@FeyginMark) September 7, 2019Russian state television broadcast footage of buses leaving Moscow's Lefortovo Prison, saying the convoy had left "as part of preparations for a prisoner exchange".
"Towards the normalization of relations"
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday an upcoming "massive" exchange of prisoners, without specifying a date. This measure, he said, will be "a great step towards the normalization of relations" between the two countries, after the arrival in power in Ukraine of the former comedian Volodymyr Zelensky in May.
Moscow, however, had trouble agreeing with Kiev on the names of the prisoners who would be exchanged, he added.
Among the other prisoners are 24 Ukrainian sailors whose Russia captured the ships off the Crimea last November during the most serious direct confrontation between the two countries for years.
Their lawyer Nikolai Polozov told AFP in the morning: "According to my information, they are aboard a bus, all 24", adding that they should arrive in Ukraine "in the coming hours".
This week, Ukraine also released Volodymyr Tsemakh, a former military leader of the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Former 58-year-old "anti-air defense" separatist from eastern Ukraine, considered a "key suspect" in the MH17 case shot in 2014 by a Russian missile over Ukraine, according to a letter published Wednesday and signed by 40 MEPs. The latter had called in their letter the Ukrainian President not to deliver him to Russia, which fiercely refutes his involvement in the disaster of MH17.
This exchange of prisoners, if it takes place to the end, will be the first of this scale between Ukraine and Russia, since the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014 that has made more than 13 000 dead in five years.
Volodymyr Zelensky's arrival in Kiev facilitated relations between Kiev and Moscow. The peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, with the participation of France and Germany, should resume this month.
With AFP and Reuters