Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova said on Wednesday (January 11) that Ukraine and Russia had agreed on an exchange of 40 prisoners of war after meeting her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Lubinets, Reuters reports.
The meeting took place at a hotel in the Turkish capital Ankara on the sidelines of an international ombudsman conference.
Posting on social media, Ukraine's Lubinets said the talks covered "humanitarian problems and cases for providing human rights assistance to citizens."
As they met, the battle for Soledar raged in eastern Ukraine, with Russia's mercenary Wagner Group claiming to have taken control of the salt mining town as its fighters poured fire on a pocket of resistance in the centre.
They were later expected to visit the Turkish presidential palace, where President Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to make a speech for the conference at 1130 GMT.
A Turkish source said Moskalkova and Lubinets were expected to possibly discuss a humanitarian corridor and the situation of children who fled the war. Issues such as the Black Sea grains corridor would be discussed at higher levels, the source said.
Russia and Ukraine have conducted numerous prisoner swaps - most recently on Sunday (January 8) - in the course of the war, which is now in its 11th month.
