Zelenskyy: Budanov will work on POW exchanges with Umerov

16:08, 07.01.2026 1 min read

Head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Budanov, together with Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov, will deal with the issue of prisoner exchanges, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

"The coordination headquarters dealt with the issue of exchanges. And Kyrylo Budanov, the Security Service, and the head of my Office Andriy Yermak also dealt with it. And a person in this position should always deal with it, because this is a very important issue. The new head of the Office will also deal with exchanges. Together with Umerov," he told reporters on Wednesday.

The president noted that this is one of the issues of the Ukrainian negotiating team, and the pause in the exchanges is due to the fact that for Russia it is pressure on Ukraine.

"Ukraine is putting its diplomatic pressure on Russia to end the war. Russia understands that prisoner exchanges are an important and painful issue for us. And that is why it is slowing all this down. We will do everything to unblock prisoner exchanges," Zelenskyy said.