When asked whether the swap has been put on hold by now, he said that "nothing can be said" regarding the future prospects of this process so far, TASS reported.
Speaking about the consequences of the crash of Russia’s Il-76 military transport plane, Peskov said that "no one can tell how this will affect the prospects of the continuation of this process (prisoner swap)."
"But I should repeat that this is a process that should be held in absolute silence," he added.
On January 24, a Russian Il-76 military transport plane that was carrying captured Ukrainian troops selected to be included in the exchange crashed over the Belgorod Region. There were 74 people on board, including 65 Ukrainian military personnel, all of whom were killed. The Russian Defense Ministry blamed Ukraine for the crash and called what happened a terrorist act.
It said that Kiev knew about the transportation of prisoners for the exchange, which was to take place at the Kolotilovka checkpoint, and purposely attacked the plane in order to accuse Moscow of destroying Ukrainian military personnel.