Overview

• On June 12, Ukraine and Russia carried out a prisoner swap focused exclusively on under-25s and those severely wounded or ill under terms agreed in Istanbul earlier this month.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the returnees as heroes and confirmed that all repatriated Ukrainian troops require immediate medical treatment.
• Freed servicemen arrived in ambulances or wheelchairs and were promptly admitted to Kyiv hospitals by waiting medical personnel.
• Ukraine’s Co-ordination Headquarters spokesman Petro Yatsenko reported that some POWs suffered beatings by Russian military doctors and endured up to three years of incommunicado detention.
• A day earlier, both sides exchanged more than 1,200 bodies of fallen soldiers as part of the same Istanbul agreement.