The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced that 40 Russian servicemen who had been detained on Ukrainian territory controlled by Kyiv have been released after a negotiation process with the Ukrainian side. According to the Defense Ministry, the servicemen were in mortal danger.
They will be flown to Moscow on Russian Air Force planes to receive the necessary treatment and rehabilitation. Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, Andrei Yermak, also reported on his Telegram channel about the prisoner exchange and added that 44 Ukrainian citizens have already returned home.
The prisoner exchange is a sensitive issue in relations between Russia and Ukraine, which have been at odds since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Both sides have conducted prisoner exchanges in the past, although tensions in the region have made agreements difficult. In September 2019, a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine involved 35 prisoners from each side, including imprisoned Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov.
The agreement was seen as a step toward reducing tensions between the two countries, although it did not resolve the deeper issues that led to their confrontation.