UKRAINE, Jun 9 — On June 9, Russia returned to Ukraine prisoners of war as part of the first phase of the Istanbul agreements, said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president.

On June 2, during the second round of peace negotiations in Istanbul, Ukraine and Russia delegations agreed to exchange severely wounded and critically ill soldiers, all soldiers aged 18–25, and the remains of 6,000 killed troops.

Today, the first group of liberated soldiers under the age of 25 has returned to Ukraine, said the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Among those freed were members of the Ukrainian Navy, Ground Forces, Territorial Defence Forces, Air Force, Air Assault Forces, Border Guard Service, National Guard, and Transport Special Service.

The headquarters also said that there were defenders of Mariupol who spent more than three years in Russian captivity.

Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, said that one of the soldiers is from the Izium district in eastern Kharkiv Oblast.

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