The Ukrainian government this Saturday announced the release of nine soldiers and three civilians held in Russian captivity in what is the third prisoner exchange with Moscow in a week.
“We managed to free 12 of our people. They included four naval personnel, two national guards, two border guards, a member of the territorial defense forces and three civilians: man and woman and a man reported missing,” wrote the chief of the presidency, Andriy Yermak, on his Telegram network account.
According to Yermak, the soldiers were captured during the siege of the coastal town of Mariupol, in southern Ukraine, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was occupied by Russian troops for a month last spring, and Snake Island, in the Black Sea.
According to the head of the presidential bureau, with this exchange, the number of Ukrainian prisoners of war exchanged with Russia in a week rises to 98.
“We are working to free all our people. We will not stop,” Yermak concluded.
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that this Saturday nine Russian soldiers were returned “from the areas controlled by the regime in Kiev”.
Last Thursday, 50 Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war were exchanged, while the day before 35 Russian soldiers were released for an equal number of Ukrainian soldiers and one civilian.
Source: DN
