Zelenskiy suggests resuming Russian ammonia exports in exchange for prisoners of war; Kremlin rejects.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the idea, according to the TASS news agency. "Are people and ammonia the same thing?" he asked.
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that he would only support the idea of reopening Russian ammonia exports through Ukraine if Moscow returned prisoners of war, a move promptly rejected by the Kremlin.
In an interview with Reuters, Zelenskiy said he had proposed the agreement to the United Nations (UN), which had suggested that Ukraine resume exports of Russian ammonia to alleviate the global fertilizer shortage.
"I am against the supply of ammonia from the Russian Federation through our territory. I would only do so in exchange for our prisoners. That is what I offered to the UN," he said during an interview in his presidential office.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the idea, according to the TASS news agency. "Are people and ammonia the same thing?" he asked, according to the report.
The UN has proposed that ammonia gas from the Russian fertilizer producer Uralchem be pumped via pipeline to the Ukrainian border, where it would be purchased by the US commodities trader Trammo.
The pipeline was designed to pump up to 2,5 million tons of ammonia per year from the Volga region in Russia to the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi on the Black Sea, known as Yuzhny in Russian, near Odessa.
The pipeline was shut off after Russia sent its troops to Ukraine on February 24.
Zelenskiy said that hundreds of Russian soldiers were captured during Ukraine's lightning counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine.
He added, however, that Russia is holding more Ukrainian soldiers in custody than the number of Russian prisoners of war that Ukraine has.
The fate of Ukrainian soldiers detained by Russia, and in particular those captured after months of waiting at the Azovstal steelworks in the besieged city of Mariupol, is an extremely sensitive issue in Ukraine.
Some relatives gathered outside the government district in Kyiv on Friday, where Zelenskiy's office is located, holding signs that read "Bring the heroes of Azovstal home."
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