Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war for the first time in months. The bodies of the dead are also exchanged

SUMY REGION, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war Friday, each returning 75 prisoners of war in the first such exchange in the past three months, officials said. A few hours earlier and in the same place, both sides also returned the bodies of their fallen soldiers.

The Ukrainian prisoners of war, including four civilians, were taken back on several buses to the northern region of Sumy. When they landed, they shouted with joy and called their families to tell them they were home. Some knelt and kissed the ground while others wrapped themselves in yellow-blue flags and hugged each other, bursting into tears. Many appeared emaciated and poorly dressed.

The exchange of the total 150 prisoners of war was the fourth exchange this year and the 52nd since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The United Arab Emirates said it helped negotiate this latest exchange.

Both sides have blamed each other for what they see as a slowdown in trade.

Ukraine has in the past urged Russia to trade “all for all” and rallies calling for the release of prisoners of war take place weekly across Ukraine. A Ukrainian official at the headquarters coordinating the exchanges, Vitalii Matviienko, said that “Ukraine is always ready.”

Tatiana Moskalkova, Russia’s human rights ombudsman, said earlier this week that kyiv was making “new artificial demands”, without giving further details.

Among those repatriated to Ukraine on Friday was Roman Onyschuk, an IT worker who joined Ukrainian forces as a volunteer at the start of the Russian invasion. He was captured in March 2022 in the Kharkiv region.

“I just want to hear my wife’s voice, my son’s voice. I missed his three birthdays,” he said. During the more than 800 days he spent in captivity, he never communicated with his family and he does not know in which city they are located. are currently finding, he said.

“It’s a little overwhelming,” Onyschuk added.

Through the exchanges, including Friday’s, Ukraine has recovered a total of 3,210 Ukrainian military personnel and civilians since the start of the war, according to Ukraine’s coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war .

Neither Ukraine nor Russia discloses the total number of prisoners of war.

Dmytro Kantypenko was captured on Snake Island in the Black Sea in the first days of the war. He was among those released Friday and said he called his mother to tell her he was back in Ukraine.

“I’ll be home soon,” he said, wiping away his tears. He learns that his wife has fled to Lithuania with their son.

The Russians woke him up in the middle of the night without any explanation, he said, giving him some time to change before leaving. Kantypenko said they had been tortured with electroshock shortly before the exchange, and his fellow POWs standing beside him confirmed this.

According to UN reports, the majority of Ukrainian prisoners of war are subjected to routine medical care, severe and systematic mistreatment and even torture while in detention. Isolated cases of abuse have also been reported against Russian soldiers, mainly during their capture or transit to internment sites.

At least a third of Ukrainians returning home suffered “injuries, serious illnesses and disabilities,” according to the coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war. Among those repatriated Friday were 19 Ukrainian fighters from Snake Island, 14 people captured at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and 10 fighters from the Russian-captured city of Mariupol.

Five women were among the repatriated Ukrainians, including Nataliia Manuilova, who was a cook in the Azov regiment and spent more than two years in captivity. The Russians took her to her home in Mariupol, put a bag over her head and tied her hands, she said.

“I hate them. They took away two years of my beautiful life,” she said Friday, hugging her son. “I can’t believe he grew up like that.”

The prisoners of war passed through small villages before reaching Sumy, from where they were taken to hospitals for two weeks of rehabilitation. The buses drove through green fields with newly dug defense lines, preparing for Russian attacks in the area following Moscow’s offensive in the neighboring Kharkiv region.

Ukrainians flying blue and yellow flags took to the streets and loudly welcomed the prisoners of war.

Earlier in the day and at the same location, Ukraine and Russia also exchanged the bodies of their fallen soldiers: Ukraine returned 212 bodies and Russia 45.

Bohdan Okhrimenko, another head of the Ukrainian prisoners of war offices, explained the stark difference in the figures. “This time, the negotiators agreed to bring back more of our heroes,” he said.

The belligerents only meet when they exchange their dead and prisoners of war, which requires considerable preparation and diplomacy.

Vitalii Matviienko, another Ukrainian official at the POW headquarters, said there were days when exchanges did not take place because the Russian side changed its mind at the last minute.

Since the start of the war, Ukraine has recovered nearly 3,000 bodies, most of them military personnel, according to Ukraine’s missing persons office. About 1,300 of them have been identified.

It can take weeks before the bodies are identified and returned to their families for burial.

“They did not return home alive, but their memory allows us to continue fighting,” Okhrimenko said. “And it gives their families the opportunity for a proper burial.”

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Associated Press journalist Vasilisa Stepanenko in Sumy region, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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See more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine