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Ukraine and Russia exchanged 205 prisoners of war each on Friday, Kyiv and Moscow said, a week after US President Donald Trump announced a large swap would take place between the two countries.
In a post on Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that most of the Ukrainians handed over had been in Russian captivity since 2022, the year Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“This is the first phase of the 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange,” he said.
Zelenskyy also posted pictures of the released Ukrainians, showing them wrapped in national blue-and-yellow flags as they smiled and embraced each other.
He said they included troops who fought in the battle for the Mariupol steelworks, Azovstal, and those who defended Chernobyl, which briefly fell to Moscow at the start of the war.
The Russian defence ministry said in a statement on social media that “205 Russian servicemen were returned,” adding that, “in exchange, 205 Ukrainian armed forces prisoners of war were transferred.”
The ministry said the Russian troops were taken to Russia’s close ally Belarus, where “they are receiving the necessary psychological and medical assistance.”
“The United Arab Emirates provided humanitarian assistance during the return of the Russian servicemen from captivity,” it added.
It comes after Trump said last week that Russia and Ukraine would carry out a mutual swap of 1,000 prisoners as he announced a three-day US-brokered ceasefire that covered Russia’s Victory Day parade on 9 May celebrating the end of World War II.
Both sides have traded accusations of violating the truce, with Ukraine saying Moscow ramped up its strikes against civilians, killing at least 24 in an air barrage on Kyiv on Thursday.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 675 drones and 56 missiles in the attack, which targeted homes, residential apartment blocks and other civilian infrastructure.
The POW exchanges remain the only tangible result of US-led talks to put an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine as diplomatic efforts have been stalled for weeks.
The latest “1,000 for 1,000” swap was announced by Donald Trump on 8 May as part of the ceasefire deal between Ukraine and Russia during the Victory Day parade.
Kyiv confirmed that the return of the prisoners of war was Ukraine’s main condition to agree to a three-day ceasefire and specifically to refrain from targeting the Moscow parade.
“Red Square is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, who can be returned home,” Zelenskyy said confirming the ceasefire and the POW exchange.
Additional sources • AFP