Russia and Ukraine have completed a three-day prisoner of war exchange, with each side swapping 303 more detainees on Sunday, Russian Defence Ministry said.
“Thus, in accordance with the Russian-Ukrainian agreements reached on May 16 in Istanbul, for the period from May 23 to May 25, the Russian and Ukrainian sides carried out an exchange on the formula of 1,000 for 1,000 people,” the ministry said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the exchange, saying on X that “303 Ukrainian defenders are home.” He noted that the troops returning to Ukraine were members of the “Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service, and the State Special Transport Service.”
In talks held in Istanbul earlier this month — the first time the two sides met face to face for peace talks since — Kyiv and Moscow agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners of war and civilian detainees each.
Just hours earlier, the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other regions came under a massive Russian drone-and-missile attack that killed at least 12 people and injured dozens. Ukrainian officials described it as the largest aerial assault since 2022.
“These were deliberate strikes on ordinary cities,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that Sunday’s targets included Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Cherkasy regions.
“Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped. Sanctions will certainly help,” Zelenskyy said. “Determination matters now — the determination of the United States, of European countries, and of all those around the world who seek peace.”
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry reported that its air defence units had intercepted or destroyed 95 Ukrainian drones over a four-hour period. The Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said 12 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted on their way to the capital.
On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that once the exchange was completed, Moscow would be ready to present Ukraine with a draft proposal for a long-term peace agreement.
