Fourteen Ukrainians, including a pregnant woman, have been freed in a new prisoner exchange with Russia, kyiv announced on Saturday, without as usual revealing the number of Russians who have been handed over to Moscow.
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“
Today, we proceeded to a new exchange of prisoners.
Fourteen of ours are returning home, seven soldiers and seven civilians.
One of the servicewomen is five months pregnant
,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Telegram.
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In a BBC interview on Friday, Iryna Vereshchuk accused Russia of "
deporting
" large numbers of civilians across the border and using them as "
hostages
".
"
They captured all these hostages - civilians, women, local council workers, to try to use them
," she said.
“
We know there are over a thousand hostages there, including nearly 500 women
,” she said.
“
We know that they are in prisons and in remand centers in Kursk, in Bryansk, in Ryazan, in Rostov
”.
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Iryna Verechchuk also reported on the difficulty of getting the women released.
“
Now we refuse to arrange an exchange without any women on the list.
This is how we somehow try to save our women and our civilians
,” she said.
Several prisoner exchanges have taken place between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia launched its February 24 invasion of Ukraine.