Yahoo TV

One hundred and one Russian prisoners were released by Ukraine on Thursday, February 16, in a swap that also saw 101 Ukrainian POWs freed from Russian captivity, according to both Ukrainian and Russian officials.

The Russian Ministry of Defence released video showing the Russian soldiers on a bus and claimed they had been in “mortal danger” before their release.

However, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman’s office also published a video of the Russian prisoners on a bus, filmed before the swap, and said when the prisoners were asked about their time in captivity, they said they had “no complaints, comments or suggestions,” according to a Google translation of the ombudsman’s post.

The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andrii Yermak, said the Ukrainian group comprised one civilian and 100 soldiers. Among the soldiers were 94 who fought in the now-Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, including 63 who were besieged at the Azovstal metalworks plant, Yermak said.

Ukrainian officials said the lone civilian was Ivan Samoydyuk, the deputy mayor of Enerhodar, a city that’s home to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, who was abducted by Russian occupiers on March 19 and spent 333 days in captivity, Credit: Russian Ministry of Defence via Storyful