This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Russia and Ukraine on February 4 announced an exchange of prisoners that led to the release of 63 Russians and 116 Ukrainians and the return of the bodies of two foreign volunteers who were involved in humanitarian work in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported the return of its 63 Russian soldiers in a statement on its Telegram channel. The statement said that among those released were persons belonging to a “sensitive category,” without elaborating.
It added that the exchange was facilitated “thanks to the mediation of the leadership of the United Arab Emirates.”
Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, reported that 116 prisoners had returned home.
Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential office, wrote on Telegram that among them were “defenders of Mariupol, Kherson partisans, snipers from the Bakhmut area.”
In addition, Yermak wrote, the bodies of two dead foreign volunteers — Briton Christopher Matthew Parry and New Zealander Andrew Tobias Matthew Bagshaw — as well as the body of deceased Ukrainian volunteer Yevhen Kulik, who served in the French Foreign Legion, were returned to Ukraine.
Parry and Bagshaw, two volunteers who were helping with the evacuation of civilians and delivering humanitarian aid, were reported missing on January 7 in Donetsk.
They had last been seen the previous day on their way from Kramatorsk to Soledar, where heavy fighting had been under way between Ukrainian defenders and Russian forces.
Soon after, the family of one of the two volunteers said that the men were killed during an attempt to carry out a humanitarian evacuation.
Yermak also published a short video purporting to show released Ukrainian prisoners traveling by bus and two photos of men holding Ukrainian flags in front of a bus.
