PoliticsRussia and Ukraine complete major prisoner exchange
SDA
5.2.2025 - 15:54
HANDOUT - In this photo provided by the Ukrainian president's press office, Ukrainian prisoners of war embrace after a prisoner exchange. Photo: Uncredited/AP/dpa
Keystone
According to official information, Russia and Ukraine have exchanged a total of 300 prisoners of war. A total of 150 Russian soldiers have returned from Ukrainian captivity.
Keystone-SDA
05.02.2025, 15:54
SDA
In return, Moscow handed over 150 captured soldiers to Kiev, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the exchange on his social networks.
"Some of the boys had been in captivity for more than two years," Selensky wrote. The returnees were members of the fleet who had been involved in the defense of Mariupol, soldiers from the army, air force and paratroopers, as well as members of the National Guard, border guards and the territorial defense consisting of volunteers and reservists. Even a police officer had been replaced, he announced.
While there have still been no substantive talks on a peaceful solution to the Russian war of aggression, which has now been going on for almost three years, even after US President Donald Trump took office, the exchange of prisoners is running smoothly. It is practically the only channel of communication still functioning between Kiev and Moscow. In the current case, the United Arab Emirates is said to have acted as an intermediary.