SUMY REGION (AP): Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war on Friday, each sending back 75 POWs in the first such swap in the past three months, officials said. The Ukrainian POWs, including four civilians, were returned on several buses that drove into the northern Sumy region. As they disembarked, they shouted joyfully and called their families to tell them they were home.
Some knelt and kissed the ground, while many wrapped themselves in yellow-blue flags. They hugged one another, breaking into tears. Many appeared emaciated and poorly dressed.
The exchange was the fourth prisoner swap this year and the 52nd since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. It included a total of 150 POWs and the United Arab Emirates helped negotiate this latest exchange, the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv said. The two sides have traded blame for what they say is a slowdown in the swaps.
Ukraine has in the past urged Russia to swap “all for all” and rallies calling for the release of POWs take place across Ukraine weekly. A Ukrainian official at the headquarters coordinating the exchanges, Vitalii Matviienko said that “Ukraine is always ready”. Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s human rights ombudsperson, said earlier this week that Kyiv was making “new artificial demands”, without elaborating.
Among those who were returned home to Ukraine on Friday was Roman Onyschuk, an IT worker who joined Ukrainian forces as a volunteer at the start of the Russian invasion. He was captured in Marc.
