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Russia, Ukraine exchange 200-plus captured soldiers

File photo shows Russian reservists attending a ceremony before departing for the warzone. (Photo by Reuters)

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged more than 200 captured soldiers in the latest prisoner swap to take place in their February-present military conflict.

Russia's defense ministry said on Saturday that Ukraine had released 82 Russian soldiers, while Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, said Russia had handed over 140 Ukrainian troops.

He identified the Ukrainian prisoners as 132 men and eight women.

Moscow says it started the war in order to defend the pro-Russian population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk against persecution by Kiev, and also to "de-Nazify" its neighbor.

Russia holds that the West's anti-Russian agendas, including its eagerness for inclusion of Ukraine in NATO -- and, therefore, the Western military alliance's expansion right up to Russia's borders -- forced Moscow to launch the war on the ex-Soviet Republic.

Over the past months, the two sides have exchanged hundreds of prisoners, despite a complete breakdown in broader diplomatic talks between Moscow and Kiev.

So far during the conflict, Moscow has seized around a fifth of Ukraine's expanse in its south and east, including Luhansk and Donetsk.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that for talks to resume on cessation of the conflict, Kiev had to recognize Russia's rule over the captured territories.

"Our absolute priority is four new Russian regions," he said.

"They should become free from the threat of Nazification that they have faced for many years," the official said, adding, "We will protect our compatriots, citizens, and lands that have been Russian for centuries."

Kiev says it refuses to cede any territory to Moscow.


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