CHERNIGIV, UKRAINE: Ukraine and Russia exchanged a brand new group of captured troopers on Thursday (Jun 26), the newest in a collection of prisoner swaps agreed throughout peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month.
Neither aspect disclosed what number of people have been launched within the newest trade.
The 2 nations had pledged to swap not less than 1,000 troopers every throughout their direct assembly in Istanbul on Jun 2. No follow-up talks have been scheduled.
The return of prisoners of struggle and repatriation of struggle useless have remained among the many few areas of cooperation between the warring sides since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.
“Right now, warriors of the Armed Forces, the Nationwide Guard, and the State Border Guard Service are returning house,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned on social media.
He shared photos of Ukrainian troopers draped in blue-and-yellow nationwide flags, smiling and tearfully embracing.
An AFP group in Ukraine’s northern Chernigiv area noticed kin awaiting the return of prisoners, some holding posters of lacking or captured troopers within the hope that somebody would recognise their family members and share information.
Svitlana Nosal realized that her husband Viktor had been freed.
“It’s such a pleasure, I don’t know how you can describe it, how you can put it into phrases,” she mentioned, laughing and crying within the late afternoon solar.
Nearly all of these launched on Thursday had been held captive for greater than three years, in accordance with Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Therapy of Prisoners of Warfare.
Many have been taken prisoner in Mariupol, a Ukrainian port metropolis that fell to Russian forces in 2022 following a virtually three-month siege.
Russia mentioned its troopers had been transferred to Belarus and have been receiving psychological and medical care.
“One other group of Russian servicemen has been returned from territory managed by the Kyiv regime,” the defence ministry mentioned in an announcement.
A video posted by the ministry confirmed freed Russian troopers draped of their nationwide flag, chanting: “Russia, Russia, Russia!”
