Kremlin to postpone exchange of prisoners until election campaign start in Ukraine

Gerashchenko does not rule out that the Kremlin will try to use this issue in favor of presidential candidates and parties loyal to the Kremlin, she wrote on her Facebook page.

"All this makes us think that the Kremlin will wait for the start of the Ukrainian election campaign and then try to use the hostage issue, as well as Donbas, war and peace, pushing for "direct negotiations" with ORDLO and demonstrating its attitude toward certain candidates and parties willing to talk on the terms of the Kremlin, but not from the position of Ukraine," she wrote.

The vice-speaker recalled that since March Ukraine had not received any response from the Russian Federation on the offer to exchange 36 Russians for Ukrainian political prisoners. In addition, other proposals of the Ukrainian side in Minsk on the continuation of liberation of Ukrainians from the occupied territories were unsuccessful.

As reported, on July 27, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova sent an official letter to Russian Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova with an offer to exchange 36 Russian citizens detained or convicted in Ukraine for crimes against the state.

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