JUST IN: Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

JUST IN: Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

Russia and Ukraine carried out another prisoner exchange on Sunday, continuing a series of swaps that have freed hundreds of captured soldiers this year, according to statements from both sides.

So far, large-scale prisoner exchanges remain the most concrete outcome of three negotiation rounds held in Istanbul between May and July.

They are also one of the very few areas of cooperation since Russia launched its invasion in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added.

While Ukraine did not release exact numbers for Sunday’s exchange, President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that one of the freed Ukrainians was journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, who had been abducted in the Kyiv region in March 2022.

“He is finally home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media.

The exchanges come against the backdrop of Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, where its forces captured hundreds of square kilometers of territory in a serious blow to Moscow.

Russia later mounted a counteroffensive, bringing in thousands of troops from North Korea, but it did not regain full control of the area until April.

Also freed was former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, who according to Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak “spent more than three years in captivity.”

“In 2022, he was on the list for return, but Volodymyr voluntarily refused to be exchanged in favour of a seriously ill prisoner with whom he was sharing a cell in a Russian prison,” Yermak said.

AFP