Russia, Ukraine Swap Over 200 Prisoners of War

AFP

Former Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged 205 prisoners of war each on Friday, as part of an agreement linked to a three-day ceasefire earlier this month brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the exchange marked the first step in a larger prisoner swap, after Kyiv and Moscow agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each under the terms of the agreement.

"205 Ukrainians are home. Most of them had been in Russian captivity since 2022," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app, posting pictures of smiling servicemen, many wrapped in Ukrainian flags.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, HUR, said that many of the returned servicemen had been captured during the months-long defence of Mariupol, a south-eastern port city that fell to Russia in 2022.

HUR added that Kyiv had also managed to bring home several dozen officers, alongside soldiers and sergeants.

The two sides also carried out an exchange of those killed in the fighting, with Russia handing over 526 bodies to Ukraine and receiving 41 in return. Both Kyiv and Moscow thanked the United Arab Emirates for mediating the swap.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its servicemen were currently located in Belarus, where they were receiving necessary support.

Prisoner of war exchanges have become one of the few tangible outcomes of U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

However, talks on ending the war, now in its fifth year, have stalled despite the 9–11 May ceasefire. The truce, which coincided with the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War, was marred by reported violations from both sides.

Hours after the ceasefire ended, Russia launched what Ukraine described as its largest and longest aerial assault, firing more than 1,500 drones and dozens of missiles, killing more than 30 people in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Ukraine has also continued drone strikes on targets inside Russia, aiming to disable oil refineries, depots, and pipelines.

Source: Reuters 



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