President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that prisoner-of-war exchanges with Russia have not stopped. According to him, this often happens not in public, and sometimes right on the battlefield.
The president said this in an interview with AP, the press service of the President's Office reports.
"We are fighting for every such person. We are exchanging them. We fill our exchange fund, and then exchanges take place. Very often we exchange prisoners of war not so loudly, not so publicly. Frankly speaking, sometimes we exchange them right on the battlefield. When we have 10 of their prisoners and they have a few of our guys, we exchange them. The commanders have orders for all this, and they know what to do," Zelenskyy said.
According to the president, over the past six months, Ukraine has managed to return about 100 of its military from Russian captivity, and several thousand since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.
Zelenskyy added that several thousand more Ukrainian defenders are currently in captivity.
Earlier, the Ministry of Reintegration reported that Russia is holding 4,337 Ukrainians captive. Most of them are military personnel. Earlier, the Ombudsman's Office reported that the exchange of Ukrainian prisoners is hampered by Russia's reluctance to return its own citizens. At the same time, relatives of the prisoners say they are ready to appeal to any international organisations and third countries to move the issue forward.