Ukraine and Russia exchanged more prisoners of war on Thursday as agreed in the June 2 Istanbul peace talks. The swap focused on severely wounded and ill soldiers.
“Today, soldiers from our army, the National Guard, and the border service are back home,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram. He said all of exchanged Ukrainians require medical treatment, and they will receive the care they need.
This was the second stage in the return of severely wounded and seriously ill servicemen. Kyiv revealed that many of the repatriated injured soldiers had served in combat operations across Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Russia’s Defense Ministry also confirmed that the exchange of servicemen took place. The exact number of exchanged servicemen has not been revealed.
Following talks in Istanbul, Russian and Ukrainian delegations agreed to a major prisoner exchange. The process began on June 9 with the swap of POWs under age 25. On June 10, wounded captive soldiers were exchanged. On June 11, Ukraine repatriated the bodies of 1,212 fallen troops, while Russia received 27. The repatriation was carried out through a coordinated effort involving the Security Service of Ukraine SBU, the Armed Forces, the Interior Ministry, the Ombudsman's Office, the State Emergency Service, and other national security and defence institutions.
