Russia hands over prisoners to Ukraine, receives Russian servicemen in exchange

Russia, in accordance with the Russian-Ukrainian agreements reached in Istanbul, has returned a group of Russian servicemen.

In exchange, a similar number of Ukrainian Armed Forces prisoners of war were handed over, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported, per Russian media.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also announced the exchange on his Telegram channel.

The exact number of prisoners exchanged by both sides has not been disclosed. It is worth recalling that earlier, the Kremlin announced that starting June 12, Russia and Ukraine would begin "urgent medical" exchanges of severely wounded prisoners.

The Russian Ministry of Defence stated that the Russian servicemen handed over by Ukraine are currently in Belarus, where they are receiving "necessary psychological and medical assistance" and will then be transported to Russia "for treatment and rehabilitation in medical facilities" of the security services.

“Today, soldiers of our army, National Guard members, and border guards are home. All need treatment, and they will definitely receive the necessary help. This is already the second stage of returning severely wounded and seriously ill servicemen,” Zelenskyy wrote on June 12 on Telegram.

The Ukrainian leader also thanked everyone who made such exchanges possible. On June 11, the Russian side handed over to Ukraine the bodies of 1,212 Ukrainian servicemen and received in return the bodies of 27 deceased Russian soldiers.

The agreement on a large-scale prisoner exchange was reached following talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul on June 2. The parties agreed to exchange severely wounded soldiers and prisoners aged 18 to 25, as well as to exchange 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in the war.

By Tamilla Hasanova