Russia says completed another POW exchange with Ukraine
MOSCOW
In this photo taken from a video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, June 20, 2025, Russian servicemen wave Russian national flags sitting in a bus at an exchange area in Belarus after returning from captivity during a POWs exchange of a group of servicemen between Russia and Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged more captured soldiers on Friday, the latest in a series of prisoner swaps agreed at peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month.
The negotiations failed to make progress towards a ceasefire but both countries agreed to free more than 1,000 prisoners of war from each side — all wounded, ill or under 25 years old.
"A group of Russian servicemen was returned from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime. In exchange, a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war was handed over," Russia's defense ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said most of the Ukrainians freed in the swap had been in Russian captivity "for over two years."
Neither side said how many soldiers had been freed in Friday's swap.
Moscow posted a video of Russian soldiers in military fatigues, chanting "Russia, Russia" with Russian flags draped over them.
Zelensky shared images of Ukrainian soldiers, with shaved heads and in the blue-and-yellow national flag, weeping as they called relatives.
The two sides have carried out dozens of such exchanges since Russia invaded in 2022 in one of the only areas of dialogue between Moscow and Kiev.
Two rounds of peace talks in Istanbul have failed to result in a pause to the fighting.
Russia has rejected calls for an unconditional ceasefire, vowing to press on with its three-year invasion.
It is demanding Kiev cede more territory and give up on Western military support as a precondition to a truce.
