MOSCOW.- Russia y Ukraine announced the exchange of some 200 prisoners of war, a week after the crash of a Russian military plane that, according to Moscow, was shot down by Kiev when he was carrying captive Ukrainian soldiers.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated that 195 Russian soldiers were exchanged for the same number of Ukrainian soldiers.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of the return of 207 Ukrainians who were detained by the Russians.
“Ours are home,” Zelensky wrote on social media, promising to bring back all prisoners, “combatants or civilians.”
According to the Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, this is the fiftieth exchange of this type and so far a total of 3,035 Ukrainians have been able to return.
Last week, a Russian military plane crashed near the Ukrainian border in still unclear circumstances, killing all on board.
Russia claims Ukraine shot down the plane, which was carrying 74 people, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be exchanged.
Ukraine, for its part, neither confirmed nor denied it but expressed doubts about the presence of its soldiers on board.
Source: AFP
