New Ukraine-Russia prisoner exchange planned, Ukraine's Presidential Office chief reveals timeline
Photo: Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov (Getty Images)
A new stage of the prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia may take place as early as the end of next week, according to a comment by Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov to Novyny.LIVE.
Budanov said that after the return of 182 Ukrainians on April 11, preparations are already underway for the next exchange.
"I hope that somewhere toward the end of the week there will be another stage. There were purely bureaucratic procedures," the head of the Presidential Office noted.
Easter prisoner exchange
As a reminder, Ukraine and Russia carried out a large-scale prisoner exchange on the eve of Easter. A total of 175 defenders and 7 civilians were returned home.
The servicemen freed from captivity defended Ukraine in various sectors: in Mariupol, at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, as well as in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kyiv, and Kursk directions.
Some of them were wounded. Most had been in captivity since 2022.
The Coordination Headquarters noted that the youngest released person is 22 years old, while the oldest is 63.
Overall, those released today include representatives of the Naval Forces, Ground Forces, Territorial Defense Forces, Air Assault Forces, Military Law Enforcement Service, Air Force, Special Operations Forces, as well as the National Guard of Ukraine and the State Border Guard Service.
In addition, 7 Ukrainian civilians who had been held by Russian occupying forces since 2022 also returned home today.
It later became known that Ukraine had planned to bring back a larger number of people from captivity, but Russia refused.
