Ukraine has carried out its latest prisoner exchange with Russia which brought back 45 people, including five injured soldiers, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced here. In a Facebook post on Thursday, the Minister said the 45 people comprised 13 officers, 20 soldiers and 12 civilians. On April 19, Ukrainian authorities rescued 76 people, of which 60 were Armed Forces personnel, while the rest were civilians. On April 14, there was a 30-for-30 prisoner-of-war exchange and on April 1, Ukraine held an "86-for-86" exchange, 15 of them were women, Ukrayinska Pravda reported. On March 24, Ukrainian authorities carried out a 10-for-10 exchange of prisoners of war.
Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities had also exchanged nine Russian conscripts for the captured mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, who was abducted on 11 March. It is also known that exchanges have been carried out upon the decision of the military leadership. In particular, at the beginning of the war, a Russian commander captured in Sumy region was exchanged for five fighters of the Territorial Defence Forces on March 1. On April 15, in Kherson rgion, the military command exchanged 5 Ukrainian soldiers for four captured Russian troops.