A new prisoner exchange took place — 175 Ukrainian military personnel and 7 civilians returned home before Easter (UPD)

On the eve of Easter, Ukraine and Russia held another prisoner exchange. 175 Ukrainian soldiers and seven civilians returned home.

This was reported by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Among those released from captivity are soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, National Guardsmen, and border guards. These are privates, sergeants, and officers who defended Ukraine in Mariupol, at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kyiv, and Kursk directions.

There are wounded among them. Most of them have been in captivity since 2022.

Also among the Ukrainian military released today are 25 officers whom Russia had previously categorically refused to exchange, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported.

More than half of the liberated defenders were captured by the Russian Federation during the defense of Mariupol. The youngest of them is 22 years old, the oldest is 63. 7 Ukrainian civilians who were enslaved by the Russians back in 2022 also returned home.

The exchange was facilitated by the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

• In March, another 500 military personnel returned to Ukraine in two phases of the exchange, as agreed by delegations at trilateral talks in Geneva.

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