Soldiers return home in the Ukraine Russia exchange after captivity

Soldiers return home in the Ukraine Russia exchange after captivity

A new prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia has started, as official bodies of both countries announced on Monday. Among the returning Ukrainian soldiers are fighters who have spent almost the entire duration of the war in captivity.

Details of the prisoner exchange

The exchange, which last week during affect, among other things People under the age of 25 and seriously wounded soldiers. The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj confirmed this in a telegram contribution.

This exchange follows a controversy in the Moscow of Ukraine, the exchange Delay - a claim that Kyiv rejected. "Our people are at home," wrote Selenskyj. "Ukrainians return from Russian captivity. The exchange began today and will continue in several phases over the next few days."

Among the released soldiers there are also defenders of the City of Mariupol , which was brutally attacked in the first weeks of the war. According to Dmitro Lubinets, the parliamentary commissioner for human rights in Ukraine, the vast majority of the released persons have been captured since 2022.

Russian confirmations and details

The Russian Ministry of Defense also confirmed that the exchange takes place. "The Russian soldiers are currently in the Republic of Belarus, where they receive the necessary psychological and medical support," said the Ministry. Wladimir Medinski, the head of the Russian delegation for peace talks with Ukraine, said that the exchange will be the largest since the beginning of the Three Years' War. He stated that Russia would be handed over to the corpse of more than 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed.

allegations between Moscow and Kyiv

The news from Monday follows a weekend full of mutual allegations between Moscow and Kiev with regard to the exchange. Russia accused the Ukraine, unexpectedly the transfer of dead Ukrainian soldiers led that hundreds of corpse bags in chilled trucks were waiting at an exchange point that Moscow described as approved by Kiev. The Ukrainian officials rejected Russia's representation and explained that both sides had agreed to exchange serious and young troops on Saturday, but had not yet been set for the repatriation of the remains of the soldier.

peace negotiations and outlook

The prisoner exchange is the result of a second sentence Direct peace negotiations Istanbul took place. Although the exchange was agreed, there were no significant breakthroughs, since the conversations only lasted a little more than an hour. Since the prisoner exchange will take several days and is considered "quite complex", negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are continued "almost daily" according to Selenskyj. "We rely on the complete implementation of the humanitarian agreements that were achieved during the meeting in Istanbul. We do everything to bring every single person back. We are working on all levels," he added.