Ukraine announced on Friday the return of 86 of its soldiers as part of an exchange with Russia, without specifying the number of Russians it handed over to Moscow.
"An exchange has just taken place, 86 Ukrainian soldiers, including 15 women, are now safe," said Kirilo Tymoshenko, the assistant director of the Ukrainian presidential office, via the Telegram app.
On March 24, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk announced that the Russians and Ukrainians had conducted a prisoner exchange.
The news of the prisoner exchange comes as Ukraine says more than 400,000 of its citizens have been forcibly transferred to Russia.
A few days ago, social media circulated a video of scenes attributed to Ukrainian soldiers shooting directly at the feet of Russian prisoners of war from a very short distance, which angered Moscow.
It is noteworthy that since the launch of the Russian military operation on the territory of the western neighbor, on February 24, soldiers from both sides have been captured, as the first exchange included 11 Russian civilian sailors who had survived a ship that sank in the Black Sea near Odessa, and were sent to Russia in exchange for The return of 19 civilian sailors to Ukraine who were captured by the Russians.
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