On May 23, Ukraine and Russia began the largest prisoner exchange since 2014. Over three days, 1,000 prisoners of war (POWs) from both sides will return home in a deal agreed upon during direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul earlier this month — the first such talks between Moscow and Kyiv since 2022. The Kyiv Independent went to the site of exchange.
The Kyiv Independent's journalists Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko followed a group of Ukrainian military medics as they journeyed from the heat of battle in war-torn Ukraine to the serene forests of Sweden for a short mental health retreat.