President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that preparations for a new stage of the prisoner exchange were ongoing all day on Wednesday.

He stated this in his evening address, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Today, the whole day is spent preparing for a new stage of the exchange. We are waiting for our people at home. It is very important that, despite all the difficulties, Ukrainians return home. And we are checking each name, looking for all the information, he said.

According to him, there have already been many cases when the guys were on the missing persons lists, but the Ukrainian authorities found them in captivity. Every time we check all this very carefully, - Zelensky noted.

The President informed that meetings between the Ukrainian team and the Turkish side are currently underway in Turkey.

(I'm talking about - ed.) starting with the Turkish side in Ankara: key security issues that are so important for our countries. Hourly reports. We expect that today's further opportunity at the meeting with the Russian side in Istanbul - the opportunity to take the right steps - will not be wasted, - said the head of the Ukrainian state.

According to him, the Ukrainian authorities are determined to continue working to free Ukrainians from Russian captivity, to return Ukrainian children, and to achieve a real ceasefire.

The priority is to prepare for the leaders' meeting, and our delegation has the necessary strength for this - directives for discussing the main issues, he said.

As reported, before the meeting in Istanbul, the Ukrainian delegation, headed by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov, arrived in Ankara and held a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.