[News] Will Russia release thousands of Ukrainians for New Year?

[Jimmy.]

A Ukrainian official has told the BBC they hope a New Year prisoner exchange with Russia will happen "any day," although arrangements could fall through at the last minute.

Petro Yatsenko, from Ukraine's Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said negotiations with Moscow over prisoner swaps have become more difficult in recent months since Russian forces began making significant advances on the front line.

There were just 10 exchanges in 2024, the lowest number since the full-scale invasion began. Ukraine doesn't publish numbers of prisoners of war being held by Russia, but the total is thought to be over 8,000.

Russia has made significant gains on the battlefield this year, raising fears that the numbers of Ukrainians being captured is on the rise.

 

One of those brought home in the last swap, in September 2024, is Ukrainian marine Andriy Turas. In a flat in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, Andriy and his wife Lena tell me the remarkable story of their ordeal. Both of them were captured while defending the city of Mariupol in 2022.

"They held lectures with us about how Ukraine never existed," says Lena, a combat medic, about her Russian captors. "They tried to exterminate our Ukrainian identity in our heads."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crk01exykx4o