Russian and Ukrainian officials exchange 50 prisoners of war

On Thursday, Russia and Ukraine carried out the most recent in a string of prisoner of war swaps, turning over 50 individuals, according to officials in Kyiv and Moscow.

According to the Russian defense ministry, Ukraine freed 50 detained Russian servicemen.

The chief of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram that 48 troops and two officers, including marines, infantrymen, border guards, and members of the territorial defense, had arrived in Ukraine.

19 Mariupol defenders, 15 war captives from the Chornobyl nuclear power facility, and seven detainees from Zmiiny Island have all been returned, according to Yermak.

Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-backed leader of the Donetsk area of Ukraine that is under Russian control, had claimed that a prisoner swap involving 50 inmates on each side was now underway.

Since the start of the crisis in Ukraine in February, nearly a thousand prisoners of war have been exchanged between Kiev and Moscow.

(Reuters)