Both sides confirm the exchange of about 200 prisoners each a week after Russian transport aircraft shot down near border

Russia and Ukraine have conducted a major prisoner-of-war exchange a week after a previous swap was prevented when a Russian Il-76 transport plane was shot down and exploded near the border between the two countries.

Both sides said about 200 prisoners each had been exchanged on Wednesday, although they disagreed about the exact figures.

“Our people are back, 207 of them,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote. “We return them home no matter what.”

He published photos showing Ukrainian soldiers hugging, making telephone calls and crying after the swap. Many were holding yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags.

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  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    3•10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Russia and Ukraine have conducted a major prisoner-of-war exchange a week after a previous swap was prevented when a Russian Il-76 transport plane was shot down and exploded near the border between the two countries.

    Russia’s defence ministry released a statement in which it confirmed the swap and said “exactly 195 Ukrainian armed forces prisoners of war have been handed over” for the return of 195 captured Russian soldiers.

    Ukraine said it had no information about prisoners onboard the plane but confirmed plans for a swap and accused Russia of putting its service personnel at risk.

    In remarks on Wednesday, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, repeated claims that the Il-76 had been downed by a western-supplied Patriot surface-to-air missile and that Ukrainian PoWs were onboard, without providing evidence.

    “I mean long-range weapons, primarily western-made ones.” He added that Russia would focus on pushing Ukraine back from cities and territories that it had annexed last year.

    But the court rejected most of Ukraine’s requests, ruling only that Russia had violated one article of the UN treaty by failing to take measures to investigate facts “regarding persons who have allegedly committed an offence”.

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