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Kremlin "interested" in "all for all" prisoner exchange:
The Kremlin has said it is interested in an "all for all" prisoner exchange with Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on October 4 that "certain work is being done in that direction."
"Everything depends on readiness of the two sides," Peskov said.
Peskov's statement comes a day after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystayko said that "a wide-scale prisoner exchange" will be carried out next week.
On September 7, Russia and Ukraine exchanged a total of 70 prisoners in a move praised by the West as an opportunity to improve tense relations between Kyiv and Moscow.
The exchange was the first major prisoner swap between the two countries since 2017.
The two countries' relations have been tense since Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea region in March 2014 and started backing pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine's east, where more than 13,000 people have been killed in the ongoing conflict. (Interfax, UNIAN, and TASS)
Ukraine releases Belarusian "spy" ahead of Zelenskiy-Lukashenka talks:
By RFE/RL's Belarus Service
Ukrainian authorities have released Belarusian citizen Yury Palityka, who is on trial for allegedly collecting classified information for an unspecified Belarusian state organization.
Palityka's lawyer, Taras Horolyuk, told RFE/RL that a court in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv released his client on his own recognizance on October 3. Palityka was ordered to attend his trial, Horolyuk said.
Palityka was arrested in June 2017 while crossing the Ukrainian-Belarusian border and charged with spying. Ukrainian authorities said then that he had secret information regarding Kyiv's military operations against Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's east.
After Palityka's arrest in Ukraine, Belarusian authorities detained Ukrainian journalist Pavlo Sharoyko in October 2017 and charged him with espionage. Sharoyko was sentenced to eight years in prison in May last year.
Human rights groups in both countries have said that Minsk and Kyiv may exchange Palityka and Sharoyko.
Palityka's release came a day before scheduled talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in the northwestern Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr.