This photograph shows a barbed wire defence line running across a rapeseed field at an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine on June 6, 2025. (Photo by Florent VERGNES / AFP)
Kyiv, Ukraine: A large-scale prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine -- the only concrete outcome of peace talks -- was in doubt Saturday after Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of delaying and thwarting the swap.
The hold-up to an exchange that both sides said would take place this weekend came hours Moscow's army launched a barrage of missiles, drones and bombs across the country.
At talks in Istanbul on Monday, Kyiv and Moscow agreed to release all wounded soldiers and those aged under-25 that had been captured -- more than 1,000 people on each side.
Russia said it would also hand back 6,000 killed Ukrainian soldiers.
Moscow on Saturday accused Ukraine of not turning up to collect the dead bodies and not agreeing a date to swap the captured soldiers, while Kyiv said Russia was playing "dirty games" by not sticking to the agreed parameters for the exchange.
"The Ukrainian side has unexpectedly postponed for an indefinite period, both the acceptance of the bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war," Russia's top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on social media.
A defence ministry spokesman said "the Ukrainian side is still refraining from setting a date" for the first stage of the POW swap.
