Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners of war on Saturday ahead of a planned Easter truce, with each side releasing 175, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Saturday. TASR informs about this according to the reports of the AFP and DPA agencies.
- Russia and Ukraine exchanged 175 prisoners of war each.
- Before the ceasefire, Russia carried out at least 160 drone strikes, killing four people.
- The Easter truce is scheduled to last from Saturday afternoon to Sunday midnight.
Zelenskyj: Our people are returning home
“In addition, seven citizens of the Russian Federation who were illegally detained by the Kyiv regime were returned,” the Russian ministry said, adding that the United Arab Emirates helped broker the exchange.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the exchange in a post on Platform X. “Our people are returning home. 175 soldiers – members of the Armed Forces, National Guard, Border Guard. Privates, non-commissioned officers and officers. And seven civilians,” he wrote.
Most of the Ukrainian soldiers were in captivity as of 2022
“Our soldiers defended Ukraine on various fronts: in Mariupol, near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporozhye, Sumy, Kyiv and Kursk regions,” added Zelensky.
“There are wounded among them. Most of them have been in captivity since 2022. And finally (they are) home,” the Ukrainian president added.
Russian attack before the armistice
Hours before a ceasefire was scheduled to start, Russia fired at least 160 drones into Ukraine, killing four people and injuring dozens in the country’s east and south, Ukrainian authorities said.
The southern part of the Ukrainian port city of Odesa was hardest hit, where authorities reported two deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure.
At the same time, a wave of Ukrainian drones caused an oil warehouse fire and damaged residential buildings in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar.
Easter truce
A ceasefire in the fighting in Ukraine during the Orthodox Easter celebrations should begin on Saturday, April 11 at 4:00 p.m. Moscow time (3:00 p.m. CEST) and end at midnight on April 12 (11:00 p.m. CEST).
During the Easter truce ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin last year, both sides of the conflict reported multiple violations of it, DPA reminds. Zelenskyy said on Saturday that his country would respond “in the same way” to any violation of the ceasefire by Russia.
The exchange of prisoners of war and dead soldiers is one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between Kiev and Moscow during more than four years of war.
