Politics Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners
Russia and Ukraine have completed a prisoner exchange announced by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
19.03.2025, 16:37
SDA
175 Russian soldiers have returned from Ukrainian captivity, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced. "In return, 175 prisoners of war were handed over to the Ukrainian armed forces and, as a gesture of goodwill, 22 seriously injured soldiers in urgent need of medical assistance." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the exchange shortly afterwards.
"Today is another day for Ukraine to get its own back," was the message on the head of state's Telegram channel. All of them will be given the necessary medical and psychological help. According to Selenskyj, this was one of the largest prisoner exchanges. The returnees include defenders of the south-eastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and Ukrainian soldiers who were captured in the Kursk border region in western Russia.
The exchange was brokered by the United Arab Emirates. Prisoner exchanges are one of the few issues on which Moscow and Kiev are in dialog with each other. The current exchange was announced by Putin in his telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump about a ceasefire on Tuesday. There he had promised the release of 23 seriously injured people.
