On Thursday, March 24, the first full-fledged exchange of prisoners took place between Ukraine and the aggressor country of the Russian Federation. This was announced by the Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Irina Vereshchuk.

“Today, on the orders of President Zelensky, the first full-fledged exchange of prisoners of war took place.. In exchange for 10 captured invaders, we pulled out 10 of our servicemen,” Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram..

According to the minister, Ukraine today also sent 11 Russian civilian sailors rescued from a sunken ship near Odessa to the Russians.. As a result of this exchange, 19 Ukrainian civilian sailors return home from the Sapphire rescue ship, captured by the invaders while trying to take our military from Zmeiny Island.

“Under the terms of the exchange, the rescue ship itself will also be returned to Ukraine and will be sent to a port in Turkey,” Vereshchuk added..

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Recall that Russian warships seized the ship "

Later, the same group of ships captured two more civilian Ukrainian vessels - the Athena tanker and the Princess Nicole dry cargo ship.. The day before, the occupiers announced a “counter-terrorist operation” in the northwestern part of the Black Sea..

On March 9, it became known that the Sapphire civilian rescue ship seized by Russian invaders was being transported to the port of occupied Sevastopol.