By Andrea Hargraves 
Ukrainian soldiers at a checkpoint in Kyiv, the capital of UkraineFrance Press agency
Posted on 09/04/2022 18:59
Ukraine – Ukraine announced on Saturday (9) that it had carried out the “third exchange” of prisoners with Russia, which allowed the release of 12 Ukrainian soldiers and 14 civilians.
“By order of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, today the third exchange of prisoners took place. 12 of our soldiers, including one officer, returned home. Ukrainian Minister, Irina Vereshuk, via Telegram.
The Kremlin’s human rights delegate, Tatiana Moskalkova, in turn, said that 14 Russian sailors were allowed to return home during this exchange.
“Fourteen sailors of the civilian ship Azov Concorde, who had been held by the Ukrainian army since last February, in the port of Mariupol, the city on the Azov Sea destroyed by Russian forces, were released and evacuated to a safe place,” he said on Telegram.
Ukraine conducted its first prisoner exchange with Russia in late March, a month after the conflict began, when ten Russian soldiers were exchanged for ten Ukrainian soldiers. In the same agreement, 11 Russian civilian sailors, rescued from a shipwreck in the Black Sea near Odessa, were sent to Russia in exchange for the release of 19 Ukrainian civilian sailors, who were captured by the Russians.
On April 1, Ukraine announced the release of 86 of its soldiers who had been captured by Russia, in exchange for Russian soldiers whose number was not disclosed.