Western leaders and Russia have welcomed a mass prisoner exchange amid efforts to end the five-year war between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists fighting in Ukraine’s east.
The swap of 200 prisoners, which took place at a checkpoint near the separatist-held city of Horlivka in the eastern Donetsk region on December 29, included military personnel, civilians, members of Ukraines disbanded Berkut security forces, and two RFE/RL journalists.