Officials from Russia and Ukraine said that the two nations exchanged 218 inmates, including 108 Ukrainian women, in what was one of the greatest prisoner exchanges in the history of the conflict.
And Andrei Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, claimed that 12 civilians are among the ladies.
37 women were arrested after the Russian military seized control of the sizable Azovstal Steel Complex in the coastal city of Mariolol in May, he added in a post to the Telegram messaging service.
According to Yermak, the women who had been freed from their mothers and daughters were kept together.
Numerous women were seen exiting white buses in the images released by Yermak, some of whom were wearing the coats and military outsiders.
Separately, the Ukrainian Minister of Interior said that some of the freed women had been held captive since 2019 after being arrested by Kiev-aligned authorities in the country’s eastern regions.
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the exchange process, noting that it has recovered 100 people, including “72 seas from Russian civilian ships, who have been detained by the Kyiv regime since February 2022.
Two Ukrainians who were included in the exchange deal, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, “voluntarily declined to return to Ukraine, indicating their wish to stay in Russia.”
Since the conflict started in February of last year, Russia and Ukraine have exchanged several captives.
108 Ukrainians are among the 218 convicts that Kiev and Moscow swap.
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