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What the 7 September 2019 prisoner swap involved
Summary
A look back at the 35-for-35 exchange between Russia and Ukraine and the questions raised by one name on the list.
What did the prisoner exchange of 7 September 2019 actually deliver, and what did it cost? Russia and Ukraine swapped detainees on a 35-to-35 basis, in a deal that had been signalled only two days earlier.
On 5 September 2019, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said both countries were finalising negotiations on a "rather large-scale" exchange. Two days later it happened.
Who was exchanged
The Ukrainian side of the swap included Oleg Sentsov, Mykola Karpyuk, Olexandr Kolchenko and Roman Sushchenko. It also included 24 Ukrainian Navy sailors whom Russia had detained during the 2018 Kerch Strait incident. Kirill Vyshinsky was likewise part of the exchange.
The Tsemakh question
The most contested name was Volodymyr Tsemakh. On 5 September 2019, the Court of Appeal in Kyiv ruled to release him. He was a person of interest in the case of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. That flight, travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down on 17 July 2014 over eastern Ukraine by Russian-backed forces with a Buk missile. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed.
By 7 September 2019, his inclusion in the swap had drawn a response from the Dutch government, which said it seriously regretted it. The reaction shows how an exchange celebrated for freeing sailors and prisoners also touched an unresolved criminal inquiry into the loss of the aircraft.
Reaction and the wider moment
U.S. President Donald Trump praised the exchange, calling it perhaps a first big step towards peace. The assessment was his own; the swap itself was a narrower matter of 35 people on each side.
The period also saw a domestic institutional change in Ukraine. On 5 September 2019, the newly created High Anti-Corruption Court began work. It had no direct link to the exchange, but the two developments fell within the same three days.
The swap's meaning depended on the vantage point: for freed individuals and their families it was a release, while for the Dutch government the inclusion of Tsemakh was a matter of regret.
