KIEV, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview show that Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested prisoners exchange based on an all-for-all principle, the Kyiv Post reported Wednesday.
Zelensky shed light on his phone conversation with Putin during the interview aired on a number of Ukrainian TV channels, and said that he is convinced Ukrainian prisoners held both in Russia and in Donbas and Crimea will be swapped.
"The president of the Russian Federation told me that he saw an all-for-all solution for the issue of prisoners. I told him openly that I would be happy to exchange all for all, but there is one problem. Our list of all of our guys who are held in the temporarily occupied territories doesn't coincide with the list of the people who are controlling our temporarily occupied territories now," said Zelensky.
Zelensky underlined that he would do his best to first return all those who are in Russia and that the swap should start with the sailors.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that a trade of all prisoners of the Ukraine conflict would be "ideal," and the "ideal format" is "all for all," Peskov was quoted by Russian news agency TASS as saying.
Earlier today, Moscow's Lefortovo District Court extended the detention of all 24 captive Ukrainian sailors until October this year.
On Nov. 25, Russia seized three Ukrainian warships and 24 sailors on board near the Kerch Strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, accusing them of breaching the Russian border.
