Ukrainian authorities have conducted an "86 for 86" prisoner exchange

DENYS KARLOVSKYI, ROMAN KRAVETS - FRIDAY, 1 APRIL 2022, 18:15

The Ukrainian authorities have conducted an "86 for 86" prisoner exchange.

Source: Iryna Vereshchuk, deputy prime minister, Vereshchuk in a commentary for Ukrainska Pravda, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office

According to Vereshchuk: " The second exchange of prisoners has just taken place on President Zelenskyy's order. We are bringing 86 of our soldiers home! 15 of them are women!"

I appeal to all our personnel who are captives: we will fight for each of you! Let's bring them all home. Hold fast!".

Details: Vereshchuk explained that one of the principal positions of the Ukrainian side was to include the 15 female soldiers in the group of prisoners exchanged.

Tymoshenko added that all of them were already safe in Ukrainian government-controlled territory.

Background:

• On 24 March, the Ukrainian authorities conducted an exchange of prisoners of war on a 10-for-10 basis. They also rescued 19 crew members of the rescue ship Sapfir captured by the Russian invaders.
• The Ukrainian authorities also exchanged 9 Russian conscripts for the captured mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, who had been kidnapped on 11 March.
• On 1 March, local authorities in the Sumy Region exchanged a Russian commander for five Ukrainian fighters from the territorial defence forces.
• The Russian occupiers have deliberately abducted 24 local government officials, while the fate of two more civil servants is still unknown. It also became known on 31 March that when retreating from the "exclusion zone" at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, Russian invaders took with them captive National Guard soldiers who had been guarding the facility during the first day of the full-scale war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he was ready to exchange all prisoners of war, but warned that the exchanges would have to stop if the Russians continue to abduct Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories. The president also assured that Ukrainians treat the captured Russians "well" because they are, in his words, "not cattle".