Moscow Kyiv exchange 50 pows - BANGLANEWSUS.COM
  • নিউইয়র্ক, সকাল ৭:২৬, ১৪ই ফেব্রুয়ারি, ২০২৫ খ্রিস্টাব্দ


 

Moscow Kyiv exchange 50 pows

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প্রকাশিত জানুয়ারি ১৬, ২০২৫
Moscow Kyiv exchange 50 pows

International desk:

Russia and Ukraine have each released 25 captured prisoners of war in the first exchange of 2025, both countries said on Wednesday.

Thousands of fighters have been returned in dozens of exchanges since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, a rare form of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv after nearly three years of fighting.

‘As a result of the negotiation process, 25 Russian servicemen were returned from territory controlled by the Kyiv regime. In return, 25 Ukrainian servicemen were handed over,’ Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said 25 people were ‘returning home to Ukraine’, including some who fought at the Azovstal steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol, captured by Russia in May 2022.

He said some of those released were ‘civilians,’ though Russia said it had released only Ukrainian soldiers.

‘Bringing our people home is what Ukraine is constantly working on, and we will not stop until we bring all of our people back,’ Zelensky said in a post on X.

He published photos of some of those freed, including a man receiving a medical check and one sitting in a vehicle clutching a Ukrainian flag.

‘Many of them have severe injuries and illnesses,’ Zelensky said.

Russia said its soldiers were being given ‘the necessary psychological and medical help’ in Belarus, Moscow’s close ally, before their return to Russia.

Russian human rights ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova published a video of her calling the wife of one man to share the news.

Another cried as he spoke to his mother on the phone. The United Arab Emirates helped mediate the deal, both sides said.

Meanwhile, Russia launched dozens of missiles and drones at the Ukrainian energy sector, Kyiv said Wednesday, ramping up a months-long bombing campaign at a precarious moment of the war for Ukraine.

The barrage came just one day after Kyiv said it had carried out its largest aerial attack of the war on Russian army factories and energy hubs hundreds of kilometres from the front line.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had deployed 43 cruise and ballistic missiles and 74 attack drones in the overnight barrage that appeared to have targeted sites mainly in western Ukraine.

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