
Nearly a week after exchanging allegations over the catastrophic crash of an aircraft Moscow said had been transporting Ukrainian POWs, Russia and Ukraine swapped around 200 POWs apiece.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that 207 detainees were sent back to Kyiv, but the Russian Defense Ministry stated that both sides got 195 servicemen.
On X, Zelensky posted that a total of 207 more Ukrainians were successfully liberated from Russian captivity today. There will shortly be 207 family reunifications for Ukrainians serving in the military, border guard, national guard, and police forces.
According to Zelensky, this was the fifty-first prisoner swap that has taken place in the almost two-year-long conflict between Russia and Ukraine. According to him, around 3,035 Ukrainians were repatriated via these swaps.
The Russian military has said that the Russians taken hostage were in grave danger while in captivity and that they would be sent to Moscow to get medical care and rehabilitation.
The two countries have been exchanging several counterclaims since last week when Moscow said that Ukraine shot down 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
According to Russian officials, all 74 individuals on board—including 65 prisoners of war, six crew members, and three Russian servicemen—died when the Il-76 crashed into a massive flaming ball in a remote part of Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine.
Ukraine raised questions about the claim of detainees on board, implying that the jet would have been a danger to Ukraine, while Russia said that Ukrainian rockets brought down the airliner near Russia’s Belgorod area, according to the news wire.
According to reports, neither party offered proof to back up their assertions.
Russian investigations discovered that Ukraine shot down the airliner using Patriot air defense systems provided by the United States, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claims. Putin said there should be a global probe into the event.