Putin comments on 'large' Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange after Tsemakh's ruling

President Vladimir Putin has reportedly said that 'large-scale' Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange is in final stages.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he is finalizing the 'large-scale' prisoner exchange with Ukraine on Thursday, AFP reported. The prisoner exchange was being negotiated from the last few months.

Putin's comments on Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange comes just a few moments after a Ukrainian court announced that Volodymyr Tsemakh, a key witness in the 2014 MH17 case, has been granted bail.

#BREAKING Putin says finalising 'large-scale' prisoner exchange with Ukraine pic.twitter.com/xQhCiT4Q0e

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 5, 2019

The prisoner exchange was much-awaited and can act as a beginning of substantive negotiations to end the war in eastern Ukraine.

There have been reports that the negotiations for Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange were jeopardized with Kermlin's last-minute demand that Ukraine releases Tsemakh. He has served as a DNR air defense commander and potentially knows about the downing of MH17, which Dutch prosecutors suspect was downed by a missile from the separatist territory in Ukraine.

All 298 people on board the MH17 were killed after the plane was shot down by a Russian-made missile from territory held by Russia-backed separatists as it was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lampur in July 2014.