Russia, Ukraine exchange hundreds of prisoners of war

Russia and Ukraine have completed another major prisoner exchange. According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, 115 Russian soldiers who had been captured in the Kursk region have been returned to their homeland following negotiations.

In return, the same number of Ukrainians were handed over, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the exchange on social networks.

Ukraine does not forget anyone and is trying everything to get its own soldiers back from captivity, Zelensky said.

He thanked his troops who had taken the Russians prisoner, saying this had made the exchange possible in the first place.

Zelensky has said more than once that one of the aims of the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region is to capture Russian soldiers in order to exchange them for Ukrainians who are being held as prisoners of war.

More than two years on since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, most diplomatic channels between the two are closed, with prisoner exchanges one of the few areas in which Moscow and Kiev are still cooperating.