For the first time, Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners.
In a significant development, Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners for the first time in a while. The Russian Defense Ministry claims that they released 75 Russian soldiers who were in grave danger, while handing over 75 prisoners of war to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the swap on his Telegram channel. Apart from regular soldiers, he mentioned that those involved included members of the National Guard and Border Guard, along with four civilians.
Previously, both sides had swapped a larger number of prisoners in February. Just two days prior to this incident, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova accused Kiev of stalling the exchange. "Regrettably, the exchange with Ukraine, which keeps putting forth new demands, has been stalled for a few months," she said at a Russian parliament session. The head of the Russian propaganda channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, alleged that Ukraine only intended to retrieve soldiers from the Azov Regiment in Russia and had no interest in other prisoners.
However, with the successful exchange that did not involve fighters from the Azov Regiment, Zelensky reaffirmed Kiev's determination to return all prisoners.
Read also:
After the standstill in prisoner exchanges, Russia and Ukraine proceeded to release 75 prisoners each. The standstill had been attributed to Ukraine's alleged demand for specific soldiers from the Azov Regiment.
