The governments of the two countries announced on the 10th (local time) that about 200 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers each returned to their home countries in a prisoner exchange.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said 106 Russian soldiers held in Ukraine have been released under a prisoner exchange agreement with Ukraine.
Andrii Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, also announced on the 10th that Russia had released 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Neither country disclosed whether there was a mediator in the process of the prisoner exchange agreement.
Yermak announced the exchange via Telegram, saying that some of the Ukrainian prisoners of war were seriously injured or ill.
He said that during the war, which began in February 2022, prisoner exchanges have only recently taken place occasionally and intermittently, but “even that has not been easy.” No detailed explanation was given.
Ukraine’s Center for Cooperation in Treatment and Treatment of Prisoners of War said that of the 80 male and 20 female military prisoners who returned, nearly half were “severely ill, seriously injured or severely tortured”. No evidence of torture was presented.
According to Ukrainian media reports, Valeria Karpilenko, one of the women who returned home this time, was a border guard who participated in the defense of the Azoutal steel mill in Mariupol and married a Ukrainian soldier in the basement of the steel mill besieged by Russian forces in May.
Her husband is said to have died three days after their wedding.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the freed Russian prisoners of war have been evacuated to Moscow by military transport and will begin treatment and rehabilitation.
A prisoner exchange like this time is, at least, the least area in which Ukraine and Russia are cooperating. Both sides have exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war and the corpses of defeated armies since the start of the war.
Meanwhile, the Office of the President of Ukraine announced that at least six Ukrainian civilians were injured after Russian forces continued shelling during the prisoner exchange.
Separately, Donetsku Governor Pablo Kirilenko said Russian forces had opened fire on a power plant and apartment buildings in eastern Donbass.
Russian forces also bombed nine border towns in Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv provinces.
[키이우(우크라이나)= AP/뉴시스]
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.