KIEV, July 2. /TASS/. Deputy speaker of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, or national parliament, Irina Gerashchenko on Monday named the 23 Russian nationals convicted in Ukraine who can be exchanged for 23 Ukrainians serving prison terms in Russia.
"These are those Russian citizens who were convicted for preparations of terror attacks in Odessa, Kharkov, Kiev, Kherson and Ternopol, or for participation in combat operations in Donbass, or who are standing trials," she said.
The list features, among others, Viktor Ageyev, Alexander Baranov, Maxim Odintsov, Sergei Yegorov, Olga Kovalis, Maxim Slivka, Larisa Chubarova, and Yevgeny Mefedov.
Gerashchenko also named Ukrainian nationals Kiev wants to be released in exchange. "We are ready to hand over to Russia its nationals to have it release Ukrainians [Oleg] Sentsov, [Alexander] Kolchenko, [Roman] Sushchenko, [Pavel] Grib, [Vladimir] Balukh, [Yevgeny] Panov and our nationals kept in occupied Donbass," she said.
The Verkhovna Rada human rights ombudsperson, Lyudmila Denisova, confirmed on June 29 that a prisoner exchange could be organized with Russia in the 23-for-23 format. Commenting on this initiative, Russian human rights ombudswoman, Tatiana Moskalkova, said Ukraine’s initiative to swap prisoners for further service of their sentences in the other country is not implementable because these people have dual citizenship. In her words, before exchanging prisoners, the two countries must settle the issue of their status, for which ends a relevant bilateral agreement is needed.