“On Sunday, August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from territory controlled by Kyiv,” the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram, adding that “in exchange, 146 prisoners of war from the Ukrainian armed forces were handed over to Ukraine.”
The only tangible outcome of the three rounds of Russian-Ukrainian talks held in Istanbul between May and July was this large-scale prisoner exchange.
It remains one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since the war broke out in 2022.
Russia also announced that eight Russian civilians, residents of the Kursk region who were detained by Ukrainian authorities following a surprise incursion into the area last August, were also returned as part of the exchange.
