Russia, Ukraine each free first 390 prisoners in start of war’s biggest swap

(Reuters)

CHERNIHIV REGION, Ukraine, May 23 – Russia and Ukraine each released 390 prisoners on Friday and said they would free more in the coming days, in what is expected to be the biggest prisoner swap of the war so far.

The agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners each was the only concrete step towards peace to emerge last week from the first direct talks between the warring sides in more than three years, when they failed to agree a ceasefire.

Both sides said they had each released 270 soldiers and 120 civilians so far, with more due to be released on Saturday and Sunday.

The released Ukrainians arrived at a hospital in the northern Chernihiv region in buses and filed out, pale, most of them with shaven heads and wrapped in Ukrainian flags.

“I have no words to describe (my feelings). I was in captivity for 22 months,” said Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Nehir. He embraced his wife who said she had not been informed of his release and came from their home in Sumy region out of hope.

“You can’t make it out if you don’t believe. You have to believe every day,” Nehir said.

Another soldier, Oleksandr Tarasov, 38, from Mykolaiv, said he had been captured a year and nine months ago on the Kherson front after its recapture by Ukraine in 2022.

“I didn’t believe until this moment that it could happen,” he said of his release.

The freed Russians arrived in Belarus, which neighbours Ukraine, where they were receiving psychological and medical assistance, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

They include civilians captured inside Russia’s Kursk region during a Ukrainian incursion.

Video released by the ministry showed civilians on a bus, some smiling and others crying. “This is our gift, happiness,” one woman said.

Another video showed released soldiers wearing military fatigues holding up a Russian and a Soviet flag and shouting “Hurrah!”

“Everything will be all right! Glory to Russia!” said one soldier.