Dec 15,2022:Dozens of people, including a United States citizen, have been released in the latest prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine, nearly 10 months into a grinding war that began after Moscow invaded its neighbour.
The latest exchange included 64 Ukrainian soldiers and a US national living in Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said on Wednesday.
The White House national security spokesman, John Kirby, did not name the freed American, citing privacy concerns.
“We certainly welcome that news,” Kirby told reporters.
Fighting is raging in Ukraine’s east and south, while the capital Kyiv was subjected to a significant drone attack on Wednesday. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions more displaced and cities reduced to rubble since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
“There is no calm on the front line,” Zelenskyy said in his regular evening video address, adding that Russia was destroying towns in the east with artillery “so that only bare ruins and craters” remained.
Zelenskyy said this week that Russia should start withdrawing from his country by Christmas as a step towards ending the conflict, Europe’s biggest since World War Two.
