Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war in emotional homecoming scenes
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war under the age of 25 in emotional homecoming scenes, the first step in a series of planned prisoner swaps that could become the biggest swap of the war so far.
The exchange was the result of direct talks between the two sides in Istanbul on June 2 that resulted in an agreement to exchange at least 1,200 prisoners of war (POWs) on each side and to repatriate thousands of bodies of those killed in Russia's war in Ukraine.
The return of POWs and the repatriation of the bodies of the dead is one of the few things the two sides have managed to agree on as broader negotiations have failed to get close to ending the war, now in its fourth year.
Fighting has raged on, with Russia saying on Monday its forces had taken control of more territory in Ukraine's east-central region of Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv saying Moscow had launched its largest drone attack of the war.
Officials in Kyiv said some of the Ukrainian prisoners who came home on Monday had been in Russian captivity since the beginning of the war.
At a rendezvous point for the returning Ukrainian prisoners, soon after they crossed back into northern Ukraine, an official handed one of the freed men a cell phone so that he could call his mother, a video released by Ukrainian authorities showed.
"Hi mum, I've arrived, I'm home!" the soldier shouted into the receiver, struggling to catch his breath because he was overcome by emotion.
The released Ukrainian men were later taken by bus to a hospital in northern Ukraine where they were to have medical checks and be given showers, food and care packages including mobile phones and shoes.
Jubilation was tinged with sadness because outside the hospital were crowds of people, mostly women, looking for relatives who had gone missing while fighting for Ukraine.
The women held up pictures of the missing men in the hope that one of the returning POWs would recognise them and share details about what happened to them. Some hoped their loved ones would be among those released.
Oksana Kupriyenko, 52, was holding up an image of her son, Denys, who went missing in September 2024.
"Tomorrow is my birthday and I was hoping God will give me a gift and return my son to me," she said, through tears.
Neither side has said how many prisoners had been swapped on Monday, but the Russian Defence Ministry said in its own statement that the same number of military personnel had been exchanged on each side.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the exchanges under discussion with Russia would be conducted over several stages.
"The exchange process is expected to take more than a single day. The details of the process are quite sensitive," he said.
"That's why there is currently less information than usual."
Mr Zelenskyy also said Ukrainian forces were engaged in heavy fighting near Pokrovsk in the east and inside Russia's Kursk region and also in Ukraine's Sumy region, where Russian forces were trying to establish a presence in several border villages.
Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said at the weekend that a first list of 640 POWs had been handed to Ukraine.
The Russian military said its returned servicemen were now in Belarus, a close Russian ally, where they were receiving psychological and medical assistance before being transferred to Russia for further care.
Footage broadcast by Russia's RIA state news agency showed a group of freed Russian soldiers on board a coach raising their hands in the air and shouting: "Hurrah, we're home."
The same group was shown holding a Russian flag and chanting "Russia! Russia!" before boarding the coach.
"It is very difficult to convey what I'm feeling inside now. But I am very happy, proud and grateful to everyone who took part in this process, in the exchange and bringing us home," said one freed Russian soldier.
Both sides say the intention for this round of prisoner swaps is also to hand over people who are gravely ill or severely injured. The people seen being handed over so far on Monday appeared to be fit and well.
Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
15 hours ago
- ABC News
Vladimir Putin believes Russians and Ukrainians are 'one people' and 'the whole of Ukraine is ours'
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that in his view the whole of Ukraine is "ours" and has cautioned that advancing Russian forces could take the Ukrainian city of Sumy as part of a bid to carve out a buffer zone along the border. Ukraine's foreign minister denounced the statements as evidence of Russian "disdain" for US peace efforts and said Moscow was bent on seizing more territory and killing more Ukrainians. Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, more than 99 per cent of the Luhansk region, over 70 per cent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Asked about fresh Russian advances, Mr Putin told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that he considered Russians and Ukrainians to be one people and "in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours". Kyiv and its Western allies say Moscow's claims to four Ukrainian regions and Crimea are illegal, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected the notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one people. He has also said that Mr Putin's terms for peace are akin to capitulation. Mr Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, said on Friday he was not questioning Ukraine's independence or its people's striving for sovereignty, but he underscored that when Ukraine declared independence as the Soviet Union fell in 1991, it had also declared its neutrality. Mr Putin said Moscow wanted Ukraine to accept the reality on the ground if there was to be a chance of peace — Russia's shorthand for the reality of Russia's control over roughly 20 per cent of Ukraine's territory. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, writing in English on the X social media platform, said: "Putin's cynical statements demonstrate complete disdain for US peace efforts." Wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, "he brings along only death, destruction, and devastation", Mr Sybiha said. Mr Zelenskyy, in his nightly video address, said Russia had shown "openly and utterly cynically that they 'don't feel like' agreeing to a ceasefire. Russia wants to continue the war". Mr Zelenskyy said commanders had discussed action in Ukraine's northern Sumy region and that Russia had "various plans and intentions, completely mad as always. We are holding them back and eliminating these killers, defending our Sumy region". Mr Putin said Russian forces were carving out a buffer zone in the Sumy region in order to protect Russian territory. "Next is the city of Sumy, the regional centre. We don't have the task of taking it, but in principle I don't rule it out," he said.
News.com.au
19 hours ago
- News.com.au
Russia might try to take Ukrainian city of Sumy, Putin says
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he did not "rule out" his forces attempting to seize the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, casting fresh doubt over the prospect of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv. Ukraine said Putin's comments showed "disdain" for the peace process. Diplomatic efforts to end the three-year conflict have stalled in recent weeks and Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging a peace deal to prolong its full-scale offensive on the country. Russia currently occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and has claimed four Ukrainian regions as its own since launching its assault in 2022, in addition to Crimea, which it captured in 2014. The Sumy region is not one of the regions Moscow has formally annexed, although Russian forces have recently made inroads there for the first time in three years. At Russia's flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg, Putin suggested Moscow could take Sumy as part of the creation of a "buffer zone" along the border and repeated his denial of Ukrainian statehood. "We have no objective to take Sumy, but in principle I do not rule it out... They pose a constant threat to us, constantly shelling the border areas," Putin said. "I consider Russians and Ukrainians to be one people. In that sense, all of Ukraine is ours," he told attendees, when asked why his army was entering areas Moscow did not claim as its own. "There is a saying: wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, that is ours." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga described Putin's comments as "deranged" and called for Kyiv's allies to slap "devastating sanctions" on Russia. "The only way to force Russia into peace is to deprive it of its sense of impunity," he wrote in a post on X. - 'They are creating problems' - Putin's widening territorial ambitions are likely to roil Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has accused Moscow of not wanting to end the fighting. The two sides held rounds of direct talks in Istanbul in May and in June, but Kyiv accused Moscow of sending "dummy" negotiators with no real power to enact a peace deal. Putin has declined to take part in the peace talks in person and on Thursday said he would only meet Zelensky during a "final phase" of negotiations on ending the three-year conflict. He has also insisted Ukraine give up territory it already controls for peace. Kyiv says it cannot and will not accept Russian occupation of any part of its land. In his address Friday, Putin denied he was calling for Ukraine to "capitulate". "We are not seeking Ukraine's surrender. We insist on recognition of the realities that have developed on the ground," the Russian leader said. Putin repeated that Moscow was "advancing on all fronts" and that his troops had penetrated up to 12 kilometres (seven miles) into the Sumy region. He also accused Kyiv of "stupidity" by launching an incursion into Russia's Kursk region last August. "They are creating problems for themselves," he said.
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
Prabowo snubbed the G7 to meet Putin. Is Indonesia moving away from the West?
The decision by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to skip the G7 meeting in Canada and to visit Russia has raised eyebrows in Western capitals. The official reason provided was that his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin was pre-planned. Prabowo, being a man of his word, had decided to skip the G7 meeting of wealthy liberal democracies in favour of attending the little-known St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Known as Russia's Davos, the forum is where Russia — facing crippling Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine — seeks to attract foreign investment and showcase the best of its business and technology. Prabowo was invited as the Kremlin's guest of honour. "It's possible that he wasn't fully aware of the optics," said Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Gatra Priyandita. "But at the same time, I can also sort of imagine him thinking this might incentivise the West to try harder." Prabowo's decision came after reports earlier this year that Moscow was lobbying Jakarta to house long-range bombers in Indonesia's Papua province, causing anxiety in Australian foreign policy and defence circles. During a meeting with Putin this week, the the pair inked a strategic partnership. Indonesia and Russia's respective sovereign wealth funds signed an agreement worth 2 billion euros ($3.5 billion). Putin was praised for supporting Indonesia's bid to become a full member of BRICS — the 16-member grouping of non-Western nations founded by Russia along with China, India, Brazil and South Africa. Prabowo revelled in the fact that his Foreign Minister Sugiono, who goes by one name, had visited Russia three times within just eight months. "Russia is clever in giving attention to Prabowo," said Radityo Dharmaputra, head of the Centre for European and Eurasian Studies at Airlangga University in Indonesia. "It's not about the forum, but his personal relations with Putin … his willingness to meet with this so called great man in the in the global arena." Prabowo's Culture Minister Fadli Zon has previously gone as far as declaring his boss Indonesia's Putin. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs of 32 per cent against Indonesian goods have burned goodwill in Jakarta. "Increasingly, there is some degree of disillusionment about the United States and the future of US power," Dr Priyandita said. Mr Dharmaputra said Russia was stepping up its engagement at a time when the US and some European countries had cut their funding for several programs in Indonesia. "Other countries are struggling to compete with Russia and China in that regard," he said. Still, Prabowo's Russia trip should hardly be interpreted as a full-scale rejection of Indonesia's partnerships in the West. Since its creation as a nation, Indonesia has practised "free and active" foreign policy — meaning it is non-aligned to either the West or the West's adversaries. Prabowo is no exception. That was shown by the warmth of Anthony Albanese's visit to Jakarta last month after the Australian prime minister won re-election. As was the visit of Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles to Jakarta earlier this month. French President Emmanuel Macron also visited Jakarta to great fanfare only a few weeks ago. Analysts say Jakarta's ties to the US and Australia on a range of fronts remain much stronger than those with Moscow. Russia had never been a reliable investment partner for Indonesia, said Mr Dharmaputra. For example, Russia withdrew as an investor from the Borneo railway project in 2022 — which had been billed as an "historic milestone" for a Russian-backed initiative in the country. While Indonesia may purchase some arms from Russia, economic ties are lacklustre. Last year, China was the third largest foreign investor in Indonesia and the US was the fourth. Prabowo's decision to dodge the G7 may in fact have been partly motivated by domestic political factors, Dr Priyandita said. Indonesia, like most of South-East Asia, is out of step with Western powers in relation to Israel, its war in Gaza and attacks on Iran. The G7 leaders' statement affirmed Israel's "right to defend itself" and declared Iran was the "principle source of regional instability and terror". Being seen to buy into that narrative in Indonesia — a Muslim-majority country that has never recognised Israel and where public support for the Palestinian cause is immense — could be politically disastrous. Prabowo only recently attracted criticism for comments he made during Macron's visit, indicating that Indonesia might establish diplomatic relations with Israel if Israel recognised a Palestinian state. So, the visit to St Petersburg may have been motivated more by Putin's flattery and avoiding headaches at home than a pointed snub of the West. Prabowo has declared his foreign policy philosophy is "one thousand friends and zero enemies". His visit to Russia is a timely reminder that Indonesia, the largest economy in South-East Asia, does indeed have many friends.
