Moscow is ready to discuss the exchange of prisoners with Kyiv only after the trial of Ukrainian servicemen.
This was stated by Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, Deutsche Welle reports.
"We will consider all things after those who have been taken prisoner are duly convicted, a sentence has been passed, then there may be some other steps. Before that, all talks about the exchange are premature," he said.
Rudenko thus commented on the words of Irina Venediktova, who did not rule out the exchange of Vadim Shishimarin - the first russian serviceman convicted in Ukraine for war crimes. On May 23, Kyiv's Solomianskyi District Court found Shishimarin guilty of killing a 62-year-old civilian, Oleksandr Shelipov, in Sumy Oblast, and sentenced him to life in prison.
The Foreign Ministry has released a documentary about the last day of defenders at Azovstal
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared that defenders of Mariupol who were removed from Azovstal plant, then have to be dismissed by an exchange procedure.
Earlier, Minister for the Reintegration of the Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk also announced the exchange of Ukrainian soldiers evacuated from Azovstal for russian prisoners of war. She noted that currently there are 52 seriously injured Ukrainians.