Zelenskyy on swap of Berkut fighters
A mass prisoner exchange of 200 prisoners, which took place at a checkpoint near the separatist-held city of Horlivka in the eastern Donetsk region on December 29, 2019, included military personnel, civilians, members of Ukraine’s disbanded Berkut security forces, and two RFE/RL journalists. Ukraine handed over 124 prisoners, while the Russia-backed militants turned over 76 prisoners as part of a deal negotiated during a meeting of the so-called Normandy Four – Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France – in Paris on December 9, 2019. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined family members and supporters of the former prisoners who gathered at Kyiv’s Boryspil Airport late in the evening of December 29 to greet the returnees.