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ZelenskiySays Ukrainian Prisoner Swap 'Supposed' to Happen Sunday

RFE/RL'S UKRAINIAN SERVICE

   Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelenskiysaidSaturdaythat while a prisoner
   swapwas"supposed" to take placetomorrow, the list of
   individualswhomcentral Ukrainian authorities and Russia-backed
   separatistsareto exchange had not been finalized.
   The notion of an "all-for-all" prisoner exchange gained
   momentumDecember 9during peace talks in Paris among the so-called
   Normandy Four--Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany--trying to end the
   five-year conflict.
   "There is supposed to be an exchange [of prisoners]
   tomorrow,"Zelenskiytold journalists during a visit for a bridge opening
   to Ukraine's Ivano-Frankivsk region, according to his official website.
   "We look forward to this. The verification of all people is not
   completed yet," he said.
   He called finalizing plans for the exchange the year's most difficult
   task.
   The UNIAN news agency quoted a representative of Donetsk separatists as
   saying that Kyiv was expected to release 87 people and the separatists
   55.
   But therewas no official confirmation of any figures.
   Therewere no definitive, publicly available lists of the prisoners that
   each side is holding.

   Second exchange
   This would be the second major prisoner exchange in the past four
   months involving Ukrainians caught up in the conflict.
   In the last one, Russia and Ukraine traded a total of 70 prisoners in a
   move that many regarded as progress in efforts to deescalate a war that
   has killed more than 13,000 people since Moscow forcibly annexed Crimea
   and Russia-backed gunmen grabbed swaths of eastern Ukraine, including
   parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in 2014.
   Russia insists it is not a party to the conflict, despite significant
   evidence that includes communication with separatist leaders, captured
   Russians and Russian casualties in the fighting.
   A special representative in Ukraine for the Organization for Security
   and Cooperation in Europe, which has monitors in eastern Ukraine, has
   mediated talks among the parties and announcedMondaythat negotiators
   had "reached an agreement on a mutual release and exchange of
   conflict-related detainees by the end of the year."
   Zelenskiywon the presidency as a political outsider in April, in part
   by pledging to seek an end to the conflict--which Kyiv and the West
   blame squarely on Russia--and clean up rampant corruption for
   post-Soviet Ukraine's 42 million citizens.
   The Associated Press andUNIANcontributed to this report.