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Russia and Ukraine complete largest prisoner exchange since war began

2025-05-25 13:42:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Russia and Ukraine complete largest prisoner exchange since war began

Russia and Ukraine completed the exchange of 1,000 prisoners each on Sunday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

This is the largest exchange of this kind since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The three-day exchange began on Friday and involved mostly prisoners of war, as well as 120 civilians from each side. On Sunday, the two sides exchanged 303 prisoners.

"Today, fighters of our Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Service and the State Special Transport Service are returning home," Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

The exchange was the only concrete step towards peace that emerged from talks between Moscow and Kiev.

In the first talks since the start of the occupation – held in Istanbul earlier this month – Kiev and Moscow agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each.

Ukraine, the United States and other Western countries have called for a 30-day ceasefire as preconditions to allow peace talks to begin.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both sides are believed to have been wounded or killed in the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, although neither side publishes exact casualty figures.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have also lost their lives as Russian forces have surrounded and bombarded Ukrainian cities.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that once the exchange is completed, Moscow would be ready to present Ukraine with a draft long-term peace agreement.

As Sunday's exchange was taking place, Russia carried out incessant drone and missile strikes on Ukraine for the second night in a row, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens more.

Overall, Russia used 69 missiles of various types and 298 drones, including Iranian-designed drones known as Shahed, Ihnat told The Associated Press.

It was "the largest attack in terms of the number of air weapons on the territory of Ukraine since the beginning of the full occupation in 2022," Ihnat stressed./ REL





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