12 Ukrainians released from Russian captivity

Ukraine has brought 10 soldiers and two civilians back from Russian captivity, the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported on April 3.

Five of the soldiers are seriously injured, according to the coordinating headquarters.

The soldiers were captured during battles in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, including near Bakhmut. One civilian was from the village of Lyptsi in Kharkiv Oblast and the other was from Mariupol.

According to the coordinating headquarters, there are still more than five seriously-wounded soldiers in Russian captivity, and Ukraine had expected them to be released.

"This demonstrates the enemy's unwillingness to adhere to the Geneva Conventions, its unjustifiable cruelty to the seriously wounded and its flagrant lack of interest in further exchanges for particularly vulnerable categories of prisoners and civilian hostages," the coordinating headquarters said in its statement.

Ukraine handed over five seriously-wounded Russian prisoners of war who were physically able to be transported.

Since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, 2,005 Ukrainians have already been released from captivity, according to the coordinating headquarters.

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