Ukraine on Friday denied reports that a prisoner swap with Russia was underway.
“The process for the mutual release of prisoners is continuing. Information about its completion is not true,” the Ukrainian presidency said in a post on Facebook.
Speculation has spread in recent days that a prisoner swap was imminent and reports surfaced overnight that it had begun.
Some of the reports were based on a repost on Facebook by Ukraine’s new prosecutor general suggesting the swap had started.
“This is not the first time we have seen information chaos caused by… unconfirmed information,” the presidency said, warning against “misinformation” and urging people not to “play with society’s emotions”.
Russian new agencies reported on Thursday that Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker serving a 20-year jail term in Russia, had been moved to Moscow ahead of a possible prisoner swap.
That came a day after Ukraine released Russian state media journalist Kyrylo Vyshynsky pending his treason trial.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — whose election earlier this year has raised hopes of a reduction in tensions with Russia — proposed an exchange of the two men a few weeks ago.
Some 13,000 people have been killed in Ukraine’s conflict with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which broke out shortly after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.
A prisoner exchange could be a key first step in easing tensions between Kiev and Moscow.
