Over the past few days, 130 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been released and returned home in a “big Easter swap,” a senior Ukrainian presidential official said on Orthodox Easter Sunday.
Ukrainian and Russian forces have conducted regular prisoner exchanges during the 14-month-old invasion of Moscow. Russia maintains swathes of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine.
“We are bringing back 130 of our people. The exchange has been carried out in several stages in recent days,” President Volodimir Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Telegram.
It was not clear how many Russians were turned back the wrong way. Yermak said that among those who returned home were the military, border guards, members of the national guard, sailors and employees of the state border guard.
The swap was the second major prisoner swap in the past week. On Monday, Russia and Ukraine said they had carried out a major prisoner swap, releasing 106 Russian POWs in exchange for 100 Ukrainian ones.
Ukraine declared on Friday that it had also recovered the bodies of 82 of its soldiers in Russian-controlled territory.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project