Emotional scenes

Moscow and Kiev exchange 75 prisoners each

Ukrainian soldiers are back on home soil.(Bild: AFP)

After months of deadlock, Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners again for the first time. Both sides confirmed the exchange. The remains of fallen soldiers were also exchanged. 

Through negotiations, 75 Russian soldiers "who were in mortal danger" were brought back, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced on Friday. In return, 75 prisoners of war were handed over to the Ukrainian armed forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selensky confirmed the exchange on his telegram channel. According to him, in addition to regular soldiers, members of the National Guard and Border Guard as well as four civilians were handed over to Ukraine.

Bodies exchanged
Both sides also exchanged the bodies of soldiers. According to consistent reports, Ukraine received 212 remains of its soldiers back. The Russian side in turn received 45 bodies, according to reports.

Selenskyj shared pictures of the returnees:

The last time both sides carried out a major prisoner exchange was in February. Just two days ago, Russian human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova accused Kiev of sabotaging the exchange. "Unfortunately, the exchange with Ukraine, which is constantly making new pretextual demands, has been stopped for a few months," she said at a session of parliament, the State Duma.

Azov fighters not part of the deal
The head of the Kremlin propaganda channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, claimed that Ukraine only wanted to get fighters from the nationalist Azov regiment out of Russia and had no interest in other soldiers.

Following the exchange, which did not include any Azov fighters, Zelenskyi once again emphasized that Kiev was working on the return of all prisoners.