KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine have swapped approximately 200 prisoners of war each, the countries reported Wednesday, despite tensions arising from the recent crash of a military transport plane that Moscow alleged was carrying Ukrainian POWs and was downed by Kyiv’s forces. Following the Jan. 24 crash of the Il-76 plane in Russia’s Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine, some Russian officials had publicly questioned the possibility of future POW exchanges. Russia’s Defense Ministry stated that the countries exchanged 195 POWs each. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later stated that 207 Ukrainians were released but there was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the figures.
“We remember each Ukrainian in captivity, both warriors and civilians. We must bring all of them back. We are working on it,” Zelenskyy said on X, formerly Twitter.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s ombudsman for human rights, announced on social media that it was the 50th such exchange since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly two years ago, with a total of 3,035 POWs returned. Among the Ukrainians set free were members of the armed forces, National Guard, Border Service, and national police, as stated by Andrii Yermak, head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office. He noted that some of them had been captured while defending Mariupol, Azovstal, and Snake Island. The Russian military, without providing details or evidence, stated that the Russian POWs who were exchanged on Wednesday “faced deadly danger in captivity” and will be flown to Moscow for treatment and rehabilitation. Moscow had claimed that 65 Ukrainian POWs were on board the military transport that crashed on Jan. 24. Ukrainian officials confirmed that a swap was scheduled for that day and was subsequently called off, but stated that they have seen no evidence that the plane was carrying the POWs.
During a meeting with his campaign staff in Moscow as he ramps up his run for reelection, President Vladimir Putin said Russian investigators concluded that Ukraine used U.S.-supplied Patriot air defense systems to shoot down the transport plane. Ukrainian officials didn’t deny the plane’s downing but didn’t take responsibility and called for an international investigation. Putin said Russia wouldn’t just welcome but would “insist” on an international inquiry into what he described as a “crime” by Ukraine. ___Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at
