Russia and Ukraine carried out a major prisoner swap on Monday, with 106 Russian prisoners of war being freed in exchange for 100 Ukrainians, both sides said.
In a Telegram post, Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak said the released Ukrainians included defenders of Mariupol city and its Azovstal steel plant, captured in the war’s opening months.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its prisoners were freed after a process of negotiations.
Russia and Ukraine have engaged in periodic prisoner swaps since the beginning of the war in February 2022, in a rare example of direct contact between the enemies.
Neither announcement mentioned whether any intermediaries were involved in the agreement.
Some of the Ukrainian soldiers have severe injuries and illnesses, Yermak said in a statement published on Telegram.
He added that the latest of the sporadic prisoner swaps in the war that started in February 2022 was “not an easy one”. He did not elaborate.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War alleged that almost half of the 80 men and 20 women soldiers who returned home “have serious injuries, illnesses or have been tortured”. It presented no evidence for its claims.
According to Ukrainian news reports, one of the women prisoners is Valeriia Karpilenko, a border guard who had helped defend Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant. Last May, she married a Ukrainian soldier in the steel plant’s basement while Russian forces surrounded the complex. Her husband was killed three days later.
The freed Russians were being flown on military transport planes to Moscow for medical treatment and rehabilitation, the Defence Ministry said.
