Ukraine and Russia announced this Thursday, June 26, after having carried out a new exchange of prisoners of war in the context of an agreement agreed in early June during the negotiations in Estanbul, which had not led to advances in conflict resolution.
The two belligerents had agreed to free all young or injured war prisoners and make the remains of the combatants die, the only tangible result of these negotiations in Türkiye.
“We continue the exchanges (of prisoners), there has been a new stage,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and added that the Army soldiers, the National Guard and the border guards had been released.
“Most of them have been in captivity since 2022,” added Vlodymyr Zelensky on social networks, transmitting photos in which we see released soldiers that carry Ukrainian flags, some very moved, others smiling.
A “group of Russian soldiers” exchanged
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that a “group of Russian soldiers” had been exchanged and was currently in Bélarus before his return to Russia.
Neither Moscow nor Kyiv specified how many prisoners had been released on Thursday, such as when the previous exchanges had intervened in the last three weeks.
On the Ukrainian side, people, especially family members, went to the Cheriguiv region (north), in a tacit place, to accommodate former prisoners.
Some had the portraits of missing soldiers, hoping to get news from their fellow prisoners, because many Ukrainian soldiers are secret in Russian prisons.
Svitlana Nossal has just learned that her husband, Viktor, was released: “It’s a great joy, I don’t even know how to describe it,” he said.
Maxime, 29, released from captivity in December 2024, is also present to welcome his weapons brothers and “show them that we all hope and know that we never forget them.” He specifies that his own arrest was “very difficult.”
Prolonged torture in Russian prisons
Many Ukrainian prisoners of war said they had suffered prolonged torture in Russian prisons. Many of them seem to be emaciated and exhausted for their release.
The exchange of prisoners and dead soldiers are one of the latest areas of cooperation between kyiv and Moscow.
The return to the White House of Donald Trump at the beginning of the year had recovered the discussions of peace between the Ukrainians and the Russians, who had stopped since the spring of 2022. But the two cycles of conversations that have taken place until then in Istanbul, under Turkish mediation, did not allow a great advance.
Russia, which caused a massive offensive in Ukraine more than three years ago, rejected anyone without conditions and demands, to put an end to the conflict, which Ukraine gives in particular four regions, in addition to the Crimean Peninsula attached in 2014, and renounces forever to join NATO.
These requirements are unacceptable for Ukraine, which states, with its European allies, measures of 30 days before peace negotiations.
Source: BFM TV
