A total of 12 prisoners of war were handed over to Azerbaijan and another 44 to Armenia under the agreements on a swap between Baku and Yerevan, which were reached personally by Commander of Russia’s peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh Lt. Gen. Rustam Muradov, Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
"Over the past two weeks, Commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent Lt. Gen. Muradov had been carrying out intensive talks with the representatives of the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides on an all-for-all prisoner swap. As a result of the achieved agreements, on December 14 the prisoner swap was held," TASS cited him as saying.
"The commander of the Russian peacekeeping forces personally handed over to the Azerbaijani side 12 people and 44 people to the Armenian side," the spokesman said.
According to him, the commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent brought them home to Baku and Yerevan, respectively, onboard a Russian plane.
"Russia’s peacekeepers keep providing assistance in collecting data on those who went missing during the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh," Konashenkov said, noting that Russian officers of the peacekeeping forces had held more than 2,100 meetings with citizens and received 480 requests by phone.
