Kyiv, Moscow swap prisoners of war, ceasefire shaky
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Ukraine and Russia have exchanged 175 prisoners of war each in their latest swap, officials from both countries say, as a ceasefire to mark Orthodox Easter got off to a shaky start with alleged breaches on both sides.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine had brought home 175 servicemen and seven civilians from Russian captivity.
He said the Ukrainian servicemen had defended the country on different fronts from the east to the south and most of them had been in captivity in Russia since 2022.
At the same time, both countries accused each other of having violated the 32-hour Orthodox Easter ceasefire declared by the Kremlin.
While Kyiv denounced nearly 2300 ceasefire violations by the Russians, Moscow accused Ukrainians of having done so nearly 2000 times.
The ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, on the occasion of Orthodox Easter celebrated by the two countries, began at 4pm Kyiv time on Saturday and is set to expire at midnight Sunday.
As of 7am there had been 2299 cases of ceasefire violations by Russia, including 28 assault actions, 479 artillery bombings, 747 attacks with Lancet and Molniya kamikaze drones and 1045 attacks with FPV drones, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
However, during this period there were no missile strikes, guided aerial bombs or attacks using Shahed-type drones, it added.
The Russian defence ministry said in a statement that 1971 ceasefire violations by the Ukrainian army had been recorded.
Kyiv reportedly launched 1329 surveillance drones and attacked Russian positions 258 times with missile launchers, artillery and tanks.
The latest prisoner exchange was mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
During more than four years of war, Kyiv and Moscow have carried out regular handovers.
They are among the few concrete results to emerge from several rounds of US-brokered peace talks which remain stalled over the issue of territory.
Meanwhile, governors of two Russian border regions said on Saturday that Ukrainian drones had attacked targets in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, injuring five people.
Alexander Khinshtein, governor of the Kursk region, wrote on the state-backed messenger service MAX that a Ukrainian drone had struck a petrol station in the town of Lgov, injuring three people, including a child.
Khinshtein said the attack took place after the start of the truce.
In the adjacent Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said two people were injured in Ukrainian drone attacks.
Gladkov, writing on Telegram, said a man and woman were injured in attacks in Shebekino and Grayvoron, two small towns just inside the border.
He also said Ukrainian forces had shelled Shebekino, damaging homes and other buildings.
Reuters