Dozens of people including a United States citizen has have been released in the latest prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine nearly 10 months into the grinding war that began after Moscow invaded its neighbour.
Meanwhile fighting is raging in Ukraine’s east and south, with the capital Kyiv subjected to drone attacks.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration says the country has secured the release of 64 Ukrainian members of the military in its latest prisoner swap with Russian forces as well as a U.S citizen.
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Among them is the chief surgeon of a hospital in the southern port city of Mariupol, which Russian forces largely reduced to rubble in one of the most brutal battles in the war.
Russia’s news agency reported that the U.S citizen was arrested in the Eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine in June and charged with attending anti-russian protests and inciting ethnic hatred.
The White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby however did not name the freed American citing previous concerns.
The head of the international Committee of the Red Cross suggested an all-for-all War prison and swap deal could be an option but emphasised it was
up to Russia and Ukraine to reach such an agreement. Neither the Red Cross nor the two sides have made public precise numbers for each country’s War detainees but there are believed to be thousands of such prisoners.
Meanwhile, fighting is raging in Ukraine’s east and south with the capital being subjected to significant drone attacks.
President Vladimir Zelensky said this week that Russia should start withdrawing from his country by Christmas as a step towards
ending the conflict, Europe’s biggest since World War II.
Moscow rejected proposal saying Ukraine must accept the loss of territory to Russia before any progress can be made and said there was no chance of a Christmas ceasefire despite the prisoner release showing some contact remained between the two sides and progress on talks to resume Russian exports of a fertilizer ingredient in the extension of a grain deal.
