Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
The two enemies have held regular prisoner swaps, but none has been on this scale.
An AFP reporter saw some of the formerly captive Ukrainian soldiers arrive at a hospital in the northern Chernigiv region, emaciated but smiling and waving to crowds waiting outside.
“It’s simply crazy. Crazy feelings,” 31-year-old Konstantin Steblev, a soldier, told AFP after he was released following three years in captivity.
Diplomatic push
US President Donald Trump earlier congratulated the two countries for the swap.
“This could lead to something big???” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s efforts to broker a ceasefire in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II have so far been unsuccessful, despite his pledge to rapidly end the fighting.
One of the soldiers formerly held captive, 58-year-old Viktor Syvak, told AFP it was hard to express his emotional homecoming.
Captured in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, he had been held for 37 months and 12 days.
“It’s impossible to describe. I can’t put it into words. It’s very joyful,” he said.
After more than three years of fighting, thousands of POWs are held in both countries.
Russia is believed to have the larger share, with the number of Ukrainian captives estimated to be between 8,000 and 10,000.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have stepped up in recent weeks, but the Kremlin has shown no sign it has walked back its maximalist demands for ending the fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has defied European pressure for a full and unconditional truce in Ukraine, pressing on with its offensive, which has left tens of thousands dead.
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
