Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 84 prisoners of war each on the eve of the high-level meeting to be held between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the repatriation of 84 Ukrainian POWs in a Telegram post on Thursday, stating that the prisoner exchange with Russia had been mediated by the United Arabic Emirates. Zelenskiy said among the released are defenders of Mariuspol city in eastern Donetsk region who had been in captivity for three years since the city’s capture by Russian forces. Some of the released hostages were captured in 2014, 2016 and 2017.
Zelensky shared pictures of returned captives soldiers, smiling and draped in blue-and-yellow national flags. The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed that 84 Russian prisoners of war returned as part of the prisoner exchange deal with Ukraine. Both sides stated that the released prisoners of war were receiving medical assistance.
The two sides exchanged 1,200 prisoners each in July, with the Russian delegation stating that Moscow had offered to return the bodies of 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers. The latest prisoner exchanges are part of the peace talks held in Istanbul, Turkey from May to July.
