Russia and Ukraine each released 390 prisoners on Friday and said they would free more in the coming days, in what is expected to be the biggest prisoner swap of the war so far.
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The agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners each was the only concrete step towards peace to emerge last week from the first direct talks between the warring sides in more than three years, when they failed to agree a ceasefire.
Both sides said they had each released 270 soldiers and 120 civilians so far, with more due to be released on Saturday and Sunday.
“Today, almost 400 people are home,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a televised address that confirmed the plan for both sides to release 1,000 in the coming days.
“We will definitely return everyone. Every one of our citizens.”
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The released Ukrainians arrived at a hospital in the northern Chernihiv region in buses and filed out, pale, most of them with shaven heads and wrapped in Ukrainian flags.