After months of standstill, Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners for the first time. Both sides confirmed the exchange. The remains of fallen soldiers also switched sides.
Through negotiations, 75 Russian soldiers “who were in mortal danger” were brought back, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced on Friday. In return, 75 prisoners of war were handed over to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the exchange on his Telegram channel. According to him, in addition to regular soldiers, members of the National Guard and Border Guard and four civilians were transferred to Ukraine.
Bodies exchanged
Both sides also exchanged the bodies of soldiers. According to consistent reports, Ukraine has recovered 212 remains of its soldiers. The Russian side in turn received 45 bodies, it was said.
Zelenskyj shared photos of the returnees:
The two sides last conducted a major prisoner exchange in February. Just two days ago, Russian human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova accused Kiev of sabotaging the exchange. “Unfortunately, exchanges with Ukraine, which is constantly making new bogus demands, have been stopped for several months,” she said at a meeting of the State Duma.
Azov fighters are not part of the deal
The head of the Kremlin propaganda channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, claimed that Ukraine only wanted to bring fighters from the nationalist Azov regiment from Russia and was not interested in other soldiers.
After the exchange, which did not involve Azov fighters, Zelensky again emphasized that Kiev was working on the return of all prisoners.
Source: Krone
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