Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have said they will swap prisoners with Kyiv on Sunday.
The exchange, if confirmed, would mark a de-escalation of Europe’s only armed conflict which broke out in 2014.
“Kyiv and the Donbas [separatist region] reached an agreement on a prisoner exchange,” Daria Morozova, the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic’s spokeswoman, announced in a statement.
Morozova specified that the separatists in Donetsk and Lugansk would receive 87 prisoners while 55 prisoners would be given to Kyiv.
Ukranian authorities refused to confirm or deny the separatists’ claim, according to AFP and local media.
Possible de-escalation of conflict
The exchange comes following a peace summit in Paris in early December that marked the first meeting between Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The summit was one of the first tests for the comedian-turned president following his election last spring. Experts said that a prisoner swap could be possible after the summit.
The 2014 conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out shortly after Russia annexed the peninsula of Crimea in a move widely viewed as illegal in the international community.
Agreements to end the fighting in the Donbas region have largely failed.
Kyiv and Moscow swapped prisoners in September including Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov.
At the time, Zelenskiy said the exchange was the first step to ending conflict in eastern Ukraine.