“SIMPLY CRAZY”
The 2 enemies have held common prisoner swaps since Russia launched its 2022 offensive – however none have been on this scale.
An AFP reporter noticed a number of the previously captive Ukrainian troopers arrive at a hospital within the northern Chernigiv area, emaciated however smiling and waving to crowds ready exterior.
After they stepped off the bus, tearful kin rushed to embrace the troopers whereas others held photos of their family members, hoping to seek out out if that they had been seen in captivity.
Most of the troopers have been draped in vivid yellow and blue Ukrainian flags.
“It is merely loopy. Loopy emotions,” 31-year-old Konstantin Steblev, a soldier, informed AFP after he was launched following three years in captivity.
Russia mentioned it had acquired 270 Russian troops and 120 civilians, together with some from elements of its Kursk area captured and held by Kyiv for months.
United States President Donald Trump earlier congratulated the 2 international locations for the swap.
“This might result in one thing large???” he wrote on his Fact Social platform.
Trump’s efforts to dealer a ceasefire in Europe’s largest battle since World Conflict II have to this point been unsuccessful, regardless of his pledge to quickly finish the preventing.
One of many troopers previously held captive, 58-year-old Viktor Syvak, informed AFP it was laborious to place phrases to his emotional homecoming.
Captured within the Ukrainian port metropolis of Mariupol, he had been held for 37 months and 12 days.
“I did not anticipate such a welcome. It is inconceivable to explain. I can not put it into phrases. It’s extremely joyful,” he mentioned.
DIPLOMATIC PUSH
After greater than three years of preventing, hundreds of POWs are held in each international locations.
Russia is believed to have the bigger share, with the variety of Ukrainian captives held by Moscow estimated to be between 8,000 and 10,000.
Diplomatic efforts to finish the battle have stepped up a gear in latest weeks, however the Kremlin has proven no signal it has walked again its maximalist calls for for ending the preventing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has defied European stress for a full and unconditional truce in Ukraine, urgent on with its offensive, which has left tens of hundreds useless.
