Zelenskyy says Ukraine working on prisoner swaps that could free 1,200 captives

Ukraine is pushing to restart prisoner exchanges with Russia that could see 1,200 Ukrainian captives return home, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday, a day after his national security chief reported progress in talks.

“We are … counting on the resumption of POW exchanges,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that “many meetings, negotiations and calls are currently taking place to ensure this.”

Rustem Umerov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on Saturday that consultations, mediated by Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, had advanced efforts to resume exchanges. He said all sides agreed to activate prisoner-exchange agreements brokered in Istanbul to release 1,200 Ukrainians. Russia has not yet commented.

The Istanbul protocols, set up in 2022 with Turkish mediation, outline the framework for large, coordinated swaps between Kyiv and Moscow. Thousands of prisoners have been exchanged under the system, though transfers have slowed in recent months.

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Umerov said technical consultations would take place soon to work out the “procedural and organizational details,” expressing hope that returning prisoners might “celebrate the New Year and Christmas holidays at home — at the family table and next to their relatives.”

Meanwhile, Russian drone strikes overnight damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, including a solar power plant, according to the State Emergency Service.

Ukraine continues to battle heavy Russian aerial attacks that have caused rolling blackouts as winter approaches. The latest barrage — 176 drones and one missile — was launched overnight, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday, adding that 139 drones were shot down or neutralized.

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On the battlefield, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops had captured two settlements in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. Russia’s larger, better-equipped forces have intensified their offensive, stretching Ukraine’s depleted army along a nearly 1,250-kilometre (800-mile) front.

Despite heavy Russian losses, Moscow has continued to make gradual gains.

Ukraine, however, struck back on Sunday, hitting a major oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region and targeting a warehouse storing drones for the elite Rubicon unit in occupied Donetsk, Ukraine’s general staff said. Russian authorities have not confirmed the strikes.

Russia’s defense ministry said its forces shot down 57 Ukrainian drones overnight.