Ukraine and Russia exchange large number of prisoners

A prisoner exchange is underway between Russia and Ukraine, the governments in Moscow and Kiev have confirmed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the exchange would take place "in several stages" over the coming days, adding that the wounded, seriously injured and soldiers under 25 were being returned, the BBC writes .

Writing on Telegram, Zelensky said: "The process is quite complicated, there are many sensitive details, negotiations continue practically every day."

Russia said a "similar number" of prisoners of war had been returned to Ukraine, although neither side gave an exact figure for how many people had been exchanged.

Russia's defense ministry said "the first group of Russian servicemen under the age of 25 returned from territory controlled by the Kiev regime" following an agreement reached between the warring countries last week during talks in Turkey.

As with past exchanges, Moscow said the exchanged Russian soldiers were receiving psychological and medical assistance in Belarus.

On the Ukrainian side, relatives of prisoners of war and missing persons gathered in the Chernihiv region, near the border with Belarus, to greet the released prisoners.

Last week, Moscow and Kiev accused each other of disrupting the planned repatriation of the bodies of dead soldiers.

In late May, Russia and Ukraine each handed over 390 soldiers and civilians in the largest prisoner exchange since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.

Meanwhile, the war continued overnight, with Moscow launching a record 479 drones into Ukraine, including the western region of Rivne, which had been largely spared from attacks.

Russia's defense ministry said it had targeted Rivne's Dubno base and described it as "one of the retaliatory strikes" in response to Ukraine's bold drone attacks on Russian airports on June 1.

Russian launches overnight caused damage in several Ukrainian regions, but there were no reports of casualties.

Russia has recently escalated its attacks on Ukraine, with each week bringing a new record of drones fired towards the country.

For its part, Kiev said it attacked another Russian air base in the Nizhny Novgorod region, which is located 400 miles from the Ukrainian border.