Russia and Ukraine exchange several prisoners of war despite differences over plane disaster

Russia and Ukraine have traded about 200 prisoners of war. This happened on Wednesday, even though there are tensions because of a recent military plane crash. Russia said the plane was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war and was shot down by Ukraine’s forces.

After January24 planes crashed in Russia’s Belgorod region near Ukraine. Some Russian officials were talking openly about swapping prisoners of war in the future.

Russia’s military said that both countries gave back 195 prisoners of war to each other. After the announcement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 207 Ukrainians were set free. The reason for the different numbers was not explained right away.

We keep in mind every Ukrainian who is being held captive. Both soldiers and regular people. We need to bring all of them back. We are trying to solve it,” Zelenskyy said on X, which used to be called Twitter.

Dmytro Lubinets, the person in charge of making sure people’s rights are protected in Ukraine, said on social media that 50 prisoner exchanges have happened since Russia’s big invasion almost two years ago, and a total of 3,035 prisoners of war have gone back to their countries.

Andrii Yermak, who works for Ukraine’s President, said that some Ukrainian soldiers and police officers were set free. He said that some of them were caught while protecting Mariupol, Azovstal, and Snake Island.

The Russian military said that the Russian prisoners of war were in danger while being held captive. They will be flown to Moscow for treatment and help to recover. But they did not give any details or evidence.

Moscow had reported that 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war were on the military plane that crashed in January. The text is missing, please provide the content that needs to be simplified. Ukrainian leaders said they were supposed to exchange prisoners that day, but it didn’t happen. They also said they didn’t have any proof that the plane was carrying prisoners of war.

President Vladimir Putin met with his campaign team in Moscow to prepare for his reelection. He said that Russian investigators found that Ukraine used air defense systems from the US to shoot down a transport plane. Ukrainian officials did not say no to the plane being shot down, but they also did not admit to it and asked for a worldwide investigation.

Putin said Russia wants an official investigation to happen and will demand it, into what he called a wrongdoing by Ukraine.