Russia is reportedly preparing to return five prisoners to Ukraine

The wire service Interfax has reported based on conversations with an anonymous source that the Russian government is preparing to return five Ukrainian citizens who are currently held in Russian jails to their home country. The source indicated that the prisoners in question are housed in Moscow’s Lefortovo Pretrial Detention Center (SIZO).

The Lefortovo SIZO recently accepted a package for five Ukrainians whom the film director and activist Oleg Sentsov named as political prisoners during his own prison hunger strike. Lefortovo officials later confirmed their custody of the five prisoners.

A source familiar with negotiations between Russia and Ukraine later told the newspaper Kommersant that a prisoner exchange between the two countries is scheduled to take place before the end of this month. The source claimed that sailors captured on a Ukrainian vessel in the Kerch strait will be among those returned in the exchange.