Ukraine on Friday expressed its readiness for a further prisoner exchange with Russia, Ukrainian President; Volodymyr Zelensky said days after a combined 70 prisoners were exchanged between the sides.
Zelensky said after the release of our political prisoners and sailors, we were preparing new lists and waiting for the next stage of a prisoner exchange.
Zelensky, inaugurated just four months ago, said his top priority was to end the conflict with Russian-supported rebels in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border.
He said as part of the peace effort, the Ukrainian military had been disengaging troops in certain areas with a continuation of such planned efforts.
“We disengaged troops in the town of Stanytsia Luhanska. There is no shooting. We have started to build a bridge there,“ he said.
Finland currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, which in recent years, had become a close ally of the former Soviet republic.
“The next stage is the disengagement of forces in Petrivske and Zolote. I think that we will resolve this issue in the coming weeks,“ Zelensky said.(dpa/NAN)
