As Ukraine marks independence anniversary, Moscow and Kyiv swap prisoners of war

Russia and Ukraine exchanged over 100 prisoners of war on Saturday as Kyiv marked the third Independence Day since Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

Ukraine said the 115 servicemen who were freed were conscripts, many of whom were taken prisoner in the first months of Russia’s invasion. Among them are nearly 50 soldiers captured by Russian forces from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the 115 Russian soldiers had been captured in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched their surprise offensive into Russia two weeks ago. The ministry said the soldiers were currently in Belarus but would be taken to Russia for medical treatment and rehabilitation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that the United Arab Emirates had again brokered the exchange, the 55th since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.

Photos attached to Zelenskyy’s post show gaunt servicemen with shaven heads and wrapped in Ukrainian flags.

“We remember each and every one. We are searching and doing our best to get everyone back,” Zelenskyy said in the post.

Officials from the two sides meet only when they swap their dead and POWs, after lengthy preparation and diplomacy. Neither Ukraine nor Russia discloses how many POWs there are in total.

According to the U.N., most Ukrainian POWs suffer routine medical neglect, severe and systematic mistreatment, and even torture while in detention. There have also been isolated reports of abuse of Russian soldiers, mostly during capture or transit to internment sites.

In January, Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in the biggest single release.

Two years ago, Zelenskyy said Russian forces launched a rocket attack on a Ukrainian train station on the embattled country’s Independence Day, killing 22 people. Zelenskyy had warned for days that Moscow might attempt “something particularly cruel.”

The lethal attack took place in Chaplyne, a town of about 3,500 people in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian news agencies quoted Zelenskyy as telling the U.N. Security Council via video. The president’s office also reported that an 11-year-old child was killed by rocket fire earlier in the day in the settlement.

Drone and artillery attacks continue

Two people were killed and four were wounded, including a baby, when Russian forces shelled the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, the capital of the partially occupied Kherson region, on Saturday, according to local officials.

Ukraine’s air force said it had intercepted and destroyed seven drones over the country’s south. Russian long-range bombers also attacked the area of Zmiinyi (Snake) Island with four cruise missiles, while the wider Kherson region was also struck by aerial bombs.

In Russia, the Defense Ministry said Saturday that air defenses had shot down seven drones overnight.

Five drones were downed over the southwestern Voronezh region bordering Ukraine, wounding two people, regional Gov. Aleksandr Gusev said. News outlet Astra published videos appearing to show explosions at an ammunition depot after being hit by a drone. The videos could not be independently verified.

Two people were wounded in a drone attack in the Belgorod region, also bordering Ukraine, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Local authorities did not report any casualties in the Bryansk region, where the fifth drone was intercepted.

In the Kursk region, regional Gov. Alexei Smirnov said Saturday that three missiles were shot down overnight and another four on Saturday morning.

Russian air defenses shot down two more drones on Saturday morning, Russia’s Defense Ministry said — one over the Kursk region and one over the Bryansk region.

Independence Day commemorations

Ukraine marked its 33rd Independence Day on Saturday as its war against Russia’s aggression reached a 30-month milestone. No festivities are planned and instead, Ukrainians will mark the day with commemorations for civilians and soldiers killed in the war.

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda arrived by train early Saturday to Kyiv in a symbolic show of support from one of Ukraine’s key allies.

Videos posted by his office show him being greeted by Ukrainian officials and later paying his respects in a ceremony at the Wall of Remembrance of the Fallen for Ukraine.

Duda’s visit to Kyiv, his fifth since February 2022, sends a message that Warsaw’s support for Ukraine remains strong as the war drags on for the third year.

Poland, located to Ukraine’s west, has donated arms and become a hub for Western weapons destined for Ukraine. It has also welcomed tens of thousands of Ukrainians who fled the war. It hosts the most Ukrainian refugees outside of the country after Germany.

A trade dispute over Ukrainian grain that dragged down ties last year, and historical grievances between the two countries, sometimes provoke bad feelings, particularly among Poles who remember a World War II-era massacre by Ukrainian nationalists.