Ukraine hands 50 prisoners over to Russia in POW exchange: Moscow

Russia’s defense ministry and the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration said the two countries had swapped 50 service personnel on Thursday in the latest prisoner exchange between the two sides.

Earlier on Thursday, the top Russian-installed official in Ukraine’s partly-occupied Donetsk region said Moscow and Kyiv would each hand over 50 prisoners of war.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration reported about the release of 50 “protectors of Ukraine” and said that the exchanges of prisoners of war would continue “until the liberation of the last Ukrainian.”

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“The defenders of Mariupol and Azovstal have returned, also those captured, ... in the battles in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia directions,” Yermak wrote on Telegram messaging app.

Russia said it would fly the released prisoners to Moscow for medical checks and rehabilitation.

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