Ukraine and Russia begin talks on exchange of prisoners captured in Kursk

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Ukraine said Russia has initiated negotiations on the exchange of prisoners captured by Kyiv’s forces as it presses on with its risky operation in the Kursk region.

The talks between the warring nations follow more than a week of heavy fighting in Russia’s western Kursk region and what Ukraine’s domestic security service said was the “biggest capture of the enemy that has been carried out at one time”.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said on Thursday that his troops were still advancing at a pace of 1-2km a day and had taken more than 100 prisoners over the previous day. He previously said Ukraine controls roughly 1,000 sq km in the Kursk region.

Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukraine parliament’s human rights commissioner, told local media on Wednesday evening that his Russian counterpart had reached out to him to open discussions on the exchange of prisoners of war.

Ukraine’s military intelligence, who leads negotiations on prisoners of war, confirmed to the Financial Times that it was working on an exchange. Kyiv has not disclosed the exact number of Russian prisoners its forces have captured in the Kursk operation but government officials and soldiers at the Kursk border told the FT that the figure is in the “hundreds”.

The capture of the Russian prisoners is likely to boost Kyiv’s calls for the return of thousands of its own soldiers and civilians who have been captured during Russia’s two-and-a-half-year invasion and occupation of large swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine.

They include many young conscripts who were captured by Ukrainian forces in this early phase of Kyiv’s stealthy incursion — the first such operation on Russian soil since the second world war.

While President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not disclosed the objectives of the operation, he has repeatedly praised his soldiers for taking Russian captives on the battlefield and “replenishing” what he called an “exchange fund” for a swap of captives.

Ukraine began its surprise incursion into Russia’s southern Kursk region 10 days ago and claims to have captured around 1,000 sq km of territory.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had pushed back Ukrainians in seven Kursk settlements between 30km and 90km from the border.

Russian officials previously indicated that Moscow might move to suspend prisoner exchanges. But Lubinets said his talk with his Russian counterpart Tatyana Moskalkova had given him hope that the warring sides could move forward with them soon.

“There was a proactive conversation [with our] Russian counterpart on this issue,” he said, adding that Moscow and Kyiv were “exchanging information” about each others’ prisoners.

“We have priority categories that we are ready to exchange. First of all, these are the seriously wounded,” he said. “Secondly, Ukrainian women, and thirdly, all those who remain in captivity.”

Lubinets said that he had informed the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross that “the rights of Russian prisoners of war are being protected and at any time Ukraine is ready to continue exchange processes based on the Geneva Convention”.

On Thursday, an official from Ukraine’s domestic security service, the SBU, told the FT that its special forces alone had captured 102 Russia soldiers of the 488th Motorised Rifle Regiment and the Chechen Akhmat unit in Kursk region.

“This is the biggest capture of the enemy that has been carried out at one time,” he said.

The official provided several videos and photos of uniformed Russian soldiers with tape around their eyes and hands. In one video, dozens of soldiers were lying face down in a field with Ukrainian forces watching over them. Photographs showed 12 captives being transported in a covered vehicle and dozens more sitting inside a large structure.

Zelenskyy and Lubinets both said on Wednesday that Ukrainian authorities would seek to set up army-led offices in Kursk that would provide humanitarian assistance to Russian residents.

Several Kursk region residents who fled under constant shelling and drone attacks to the eponymously named regional capital, told the FT there had been no organised evacuation by authorities in the first days of the incursion. Many people were forced to abandon their belongings, documents and sometimes even bedridden relatives and pets.