Russia and Ukraine each send back 146 POWs: Moscow

MOSCOW: Russia and Ukraine each sent back 146 prisoners of war on Sunday, Moscow’s defence ministry said, the latest in a series of exchanges that has seen hundreds of POWs released this year.

Large-scale prisoner exchanges were the only tangible result of three rounds of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul between May and July.

They remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added.

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Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation – residents of the Kursk region, illegally detained” by Kyiv were also returned as part of the exchange.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, seizing hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of territory in a major setback for the Kremlin.

Russia deployed thousands of troops from its ally North Korea as part of a counterattack, but did not fully reclaim control of the region until April.