SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Moscow/Chernihiv, Ukraine: Russia and Ukraine each exchanged 307 service personnel on the second day of an extended prisoner swap set to be the largest in the three-year war.
US President Donald Trump has suggested the swap could herald a new phase in stop-start efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv. There should be 1000 prisoners released on each side over three days.
Saturday’s swap was announced by Russia’s defence ministry and separately by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a post on social media platform Telegram.
Olena and her husband Oleksandr Negyr embrace after his release from a Russian prison after 22 months.Credit: Getty Images
“Tomorrow we expect more,” Zelensky wrote. “Our goal is to return each and every one of us from Russian captivity.”
Reuters Television footage showed freed Ukrainian servicemen at a rendezvous point inside Ukraine coming off buses draped in blue and yellow national flags as waiting family members chanted “welcome!”
Serviceman Dmytro Havrylenko held his son and mother in a long embrace.
“I am shocked, to be honest,” he said. “These were 17 difficult months, very difficult. But everything is fine.”
Women held up photos of missing servicemen and gathered around returnees to ask about their whereabouts.
One woman, identifying herself as Yana, said no one had news of her husband, missing since Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region last year.
“Maybe the boys will recognise his photo and share some information,” she said. “We’re here for the second day. Maybe today.”
Ukrainian families wait to see if their loved ones will be among the arrivals.Credit: Getty Images
Footage released by Zelensky’s office showed one released serviceman in tears being consoled by a woman in military uniform. People assigned to greet the soldiers handed them mobile phones so they could call relatives.
“I can’t believe I’m home,” one man said.
A short video released by the Russian defence ministry showed service personnel disembarking from buses and posing with the Russian flag, as well as the flags of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire.
The first part of the exchange took place on Friday, when Russia and Ukraine each released 390 prisoners, including 120 civilians, and said they would free more in coming days.
Released Russian servicemen react as their bus arrives at an airport outside Moscow.Credit: Russian Defence Ministry via AP
On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would be ready to hand Ukraine a draft document outlining conditions for a long-term peace agreement once the current prisoner exchange was completed.
Saturday’s release took place a few hours after the Ukrainian capital was rocked by a Russian bombardment using long-range drones and ballistic missiles in which 15 people were injured.
Russian forces attacked Kyiv and other cities again early on Sunday, injuring at least 11 people in the capital, killing three people in towns around it and damaging dwellings and other buildings, officials said. Attacks extended to a string of regional centres, including Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west.
The prisoner exchange was agreed at short-lived talks in Istanbul on May 16 between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, who had come together at the urging of Trump.
Reuters
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
