Russia and Ukraine have carried out a prisoner of war exchange involving POWs under the age of 25, Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday, adding that the swap was the result of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine earlier this month.
The June 2 Istanbul talks resulted in an agreement to conduct an exchange of at least 1,200 POWs on each side - focusing on the youngest and most severely wounded - and to repatriate thousands of bodies of those killed in the war.
Both sides said it would be the biggest exchange once completed, something that was expected to happen in phases.
The return of prisoners of war and the return of the bodies of the dead is one of the few things the two sides have been able to agree on, even as their broader negotiations have failed to get close to ending the war, now in its fourth year.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not say in its statement how many POWs had been exchanged on Monday, but said both sides had swapped the same amount of military personnel.
Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said at the weekend that a first list of 640 POWs had been handed to Ukraine.
The Russian military said its returned servicemen were now in Belarus, a close Russian ally, where they were getting psychological and medical assistance before being transferred to Russia for further care.
The Kremlin had aid earlier on Monday that Russia was ready to honor agreements with Ukraine on the prisoner of war exchange and on the repatriation of dead soldiers despite what it said was Kyiv's failure to fully honor its side of the bargain.