Moscow: Russia and Ukraine have once again exchanged prisoners of war, with each side handing over 185 soldiers, the Russian Defence Ministry and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Thursday. Twenty civilians were also allowed to return on each side.
According to Ghana News Agency, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the Ukrainian soldiers involved in the exchange had been deployed in strategic locations, including the south-eastern port city of Mariupol and the long-disputed Azovstal steelworks, as well as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Many of these soldiers had been held captive since 2022.
The Defence Ministry in Moscow reported that the exchange took place on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. This event marks yet another instance of prisoner swaps between the two nations, despite the ongoing conflict.
Ukraine has been engaged in defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion for more than three and a half years. Despite the continuous fighting, both sides have maintained a practice of regularly exchanging prisoners of war and soldiers' bodies.
