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Putin, Zelensky welcome Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap

Two presidents gave "a positive assessment to the release and handover of the persons held in Ukraine and Russia"

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

The two presidents gave "a positive assessment to the release and handover of the persons held in Ukraine and Russia."

"[They] focused primarily on the humanitarian nature of that event which is crucial in the push to normalize and improve bilateral relations," the Kremlin said in a statement.

In the phone call requested by Ukraine, Putin and Zelensky agreed on contacts in the future.

Focusing on the intra-Ukrainian conflict, the two presidents underlined the importance of ceasefire and the disengagement of the conflicting parties’ forces near the contact line, the Kremlin added.

Touching upon a next summit of the Normandy Four group, Putin pointed out that comprehensive preparations for the summit should be made so that the next summit meeting "could be resultative and could facilitate the implementation of all highest-level agreements, primarily the Minsk Package of Measures."

Russia and Ukraine exchanged their nationals who had been either arrested or jailed in the other country before.

For his part, Zelensky informing about a phone conversation with Putin, called the prisoner swap "a first step towards unblocking dialogue with Russia."

On Saturday afternoon, a plane of the special flight unit Rossiya landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, carrying Russian nationals released in a prisoner swap with Ukraine. A Ukrainian aircraft touched down at Kiev airport at approximately the same time. Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova said that the prisoner swap was carried out in conformity with the ‘35 for 35’ principle.