The Ukrainian government announced this Saturday the release of nine soldiers and three civilians who were in Russian captivityin what is the third prisoner exchange with Moscow in a week.
“We managed to free twelve of our people. Among them were four members of the Navy, two national guards, two border guards, a member of the territorial defense forces and three civilians: husband and wife; and a man who has been reported missing, ”wrote the head of the Presidency Cabinet, Andriy Yermak, on his Telegram account.
According to Yermak, the soldiers would have been captured during the siege of the coastal city of Mariupol, in southern Ukraine, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which Russian forces occupied for a month last spring, and the Island of Snakes, in the Black Sea.
According to the head of the presidential office, this exchange brings to 98 the number of Ukrainian prisoners of war exchanged with Russia in one week. “We are working to free all our people. We will not stop,” concluded Yermak.
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that nine Russian soldiers were returned this Saturday “from the territories controlled by the kyiv regime.” Last Thursday, 50 Ukrainian and Russian POW soldiers were exchanged, while the previous day 35 Russian soldiers were released for an equal number of Ukrainian soldiers and one civilian.
Source: Observadora
