A second group of Russian soldiers has been released from Ukrainian captivity as part of a major exchange, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said

A second group of Russian POWs has been released from Ukrainian captivity as part of a major prisoner swap agreed by Moscow and Kiev in Istanbul last week, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Telegram on Tuesday.

The ministry did not name the exact number of servicemen returned. It did publish a video with the freed soldiers and said that a group of Ukrainian POWs had been handed over to Kiev.

The video released by the ministry shows the recently freed POWs draped in Russian flags and preparing to board buses. Some them can be heard thanking the authorities for their release.

The servicemen are currently receiving the necessary psychological and medical assistance in Belarus, the statement said, adding that they will be transferred to Russian military hospitals for treatment and rehabilitation.

Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky confirmed the exchange and called it "the first stage" of a swap involving "seriously wounded... soldiers." He also praised it as "an important humanitarian act."

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Moscow and Kiev agreed to exchange certain categories of captives, including those who are seriously injured, ill and those under the age of 25, during the second round of direct negotiations in Istanbul last Monday. The Russian ministry did not comment on the categories of POWs included in this exchange.

Russia also announced that it would return the bodies of over 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers in a unilateral humanitarian gesture. On Saturday, Moscow tried to transfer 1,212 of the bodies to Ukraine, but representatives of the latter failed to show up at the exchange point.

Ukrainian officials explained their absence by claiming that they hadn't agreed on the date of the transfer and accused Moscow of using humanitarian issues for propaganda purposes.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed Kiev's refusal to accept the bodies by saying that the Ukrainian leadership "does not need its people, either dead or alive."

(RT.com)