Exclusive-Zelenskiy suggests resuming Russia ammonia exports in exchange for POWs, Kremlin says no By Reuters

By Tom Balmforth

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mentioned on Friday he would solely again the thought of reopening Russian ammonia exports by Ukraine if Moscow handed again prisoners of conflict (POWs), an thought the Kremlin rapidly rejected.

In an interview, Zelenskiy instructed Reuters he had proposed the association to the United Nations, which has recommended resuming Russian ammonia throughout Ukraine to ease a world scarcity of fertiliser.

“I’m in opposition to supplying ammonia from the Russian Federation by our territory. I might solely do it in change for our prisoners. That is what I supplied the UN,” he mentioned in an interview at his presidential workplace.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the thought, TASS information company reported. “Are individuals and ammonia the identical factor?” it cited him as saying.

The United Nations has proposed that ammonia fuel owned by Russian fertiliser producer Uralchem be pumped by pipeline to the Ukrainian border, the place it could be purchased by the U.S.-based commodities dealer Trammo.

The pipeline is designed to pump as much as 2.5 million tonnes of ammonia per 12 months from Russia’s Volga area to Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Pivdennyi, often called Yuzhny in Russian, close to Odesa.

It was shut down after Russia despatched its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Zelenskiy mentioned that a whole bunch of Russian troops had been captured throughout Ukraine’s lightning counteroffensive in northeast Ukraine’s Kharkiv area.

He mentioned, nevertheless, that Russia was holding extra Ukrainian troopers in custody than Ukraine had Russian POWs.

The destiny of Ukrainian troopers held by Russia, and specifically these captured after holding out for months within the Azovstal steelworks within the besieged metropolis of Mariupol, is a extremely delicate problem in Ukraine.

A few of their kinfolk had been huddled on Friday outdoors the federal government district in Kyiv the place Zelenskiy’s workplace is positioned, holding indicators saying “Convey the Azovstal Heroes House”.