Kiev/Moscow, Jul. 6, (dpa/GNA) – Ukraine and Russia have again exchanged 45 prisoners each.
On the Ukrainian side, the prisoners were soldiers, national guardsmen and civil defence personnel, the head of the presidential office in Kiev, Andriy Yermak, announced on Telegram.
The Defence Ministry in Moscow confirmed that 45 Russian soldiers had returned from captivity.
In addition, two children were handed over to their Ukrainian parents by the Russian side.
Kiev accuses the Kremlin of having “abducted” thousands of minors from the Russian-occupied territories of southern and eastern Ukraine to Russia, some of whom were given up for adoption. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has therefore issued an international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.
According to Ukrainian sources, this was the 47th exchange. A total of almost 2,600 Ukrainians have returned from Russian captivity.
Ukraine has been fending off a full-scale Russian invasion for over 16 months. While contact has broken off at almost all diplomatic levels after negotiations on a peaceful solution to the conflict were halted last spring, Kiev and Moscow continue to regularly exchange prisoners of war and the bodies of the fallen.
GNA