BEIRUT — Russia and Ukraine announced Thursday that they have carried out an exchange of prisoners of war, a new step in an agreement reached during recent negotiations between the two sides in Istanbul, Turkey.
"Today, soldiers from the armed forces, the national guard, and border guards are back home," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram, specifying that these were "severely wounded and very ill military personnel."
Zelensky, whose country has been fighting against the Russian invasion for three years, published a photo of these Ukrainian soldiers, wrapped in national flags, welcomed upon their arrival in Ukraine.
"A group of Russian soldiers have been sent back from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime," the Russian army indicated, confirming the exchange.
The Russian state agency TASS subsequently released a brief video showing the freed Russian soldiers lined up with Russian flags on their backs.
Neither Kiev nor Moscow has specified the number of prisoners exchanged at this point.
On Wednesday, Ukraine announced it had recovered 1,212 bodies of its soldiers killed at the front, one of the largest operations of its kind since the invasion launched by Moscow in February 2022.
The chief Russian negotiator, Vladimir Medinski, said that Russia had, in turn, recovered 27 bodies of its soldiers.
The repatriation of military bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war are the rare areas in which Kiev and Moscow have cooperated since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.
The recent direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, in Istanbul, did not result in any major breakthrough, except for announcements concerning the repatriation of prisoners and bodies of slain military personnel.
At this stage, Kiev and Moscow are entrenched in their very distant positions, and the fighting in Ukraine as well as mutual strikes continue.
Moscow has rejected the "unconditional" truce wanted by Washington, Kiev, and the Europeans, while Ukraine has called Russia's demands "ultimatums," notably as Russia wants Ukraine to cede five entire regions.