Ukraine, Russia swap 50 prisoners in PoW exchange

Reuters: The Russian Defense Ministry and the head of the presidential administration of Ukraine said that on Thursday the two countries exchanged 50 servicemen during the latest prisoner exchange between the two sides.

Earlier on Thursday, a senior Russian official in the partially occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine said that Moscow and Kiev would hand over 50 prisoners of war each.

The head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, Andriy Ermak, announced the release of 50 "defenders of Ukraine" and said that the exchange of prisoners of war would continue "until the release of the last Ukrainian."

"The defenders of Mariupol and Azovstal have returned, including those captured... in the battles in the Donetsk, Lugansk and Zaporozhye directions," Ermak wrote in the Telegram messenger.

Russia has said it will send the released prisoners to Moscow for medical examination and rehabilitation.

Yermak also said that an unspecified number of Ukrainian prisoners of war released on Thursday were being held in a pre-trial detention center in Olenevka.

Dozens of Ukrainian prisoners held by Moscow-backed separatists in the town of Olenovka near Donetsk on the eastern front line were killed in an attack in July.