Russia, Ukraine Complete Largest Prisoner Swap
Russia and Ukraine completed the exchange of 1000 prisoners each on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in the largest such swap since the war began three years ago.
The three-day exchange started on Friday and involved mostly prisoners of war, along with 120 civilians, each. On Sunday, both sides swapped 303 prisoners.
“Today, warriors of our Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service, and the State Special Transport Service are returning home,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram app, Reuters reported.
The exchange was the only concrete step towards peace to emerge from the first direct talks between the warring sides in more than three years on May 16, when they failed to agree a ceasefire.
Ukraine, the United States and other Western countries have called for a 30-day halt to fighting without preconditions to allow for peace talks. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides are believed to have been wounded or killed in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two, although neither side publishes accurate casualty figures.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have also died as Russian forces have besieged and bombarded Ukrainian cities.
