The Russian Defense Ministry said that it has exchanged 195 prisoners of war (POWs) each with Ukraine, saying that they conducted the swap on Wednesday (Jan. 31), the Associated Press reported.
The announcement came a week after Russia alleged that Ukrainian forces shot down a military transport plane carrying Ukrainian POWs who were to be swapped for Russian POWs.
![[DEVELOPING] Russia Claims to Swap 195 POWs with Ukraine](https://d.hngn.com/en/full/286524/developing-russia-claims-swap-195-pows-ukraine.jpg?w=830&f=7b05b5a0c768929586eaec5c843c377d)
During that time, the Kremlin said that missiles fired from across the border brought down the plane in Russia's Belgorod region on Jan. 24, with local authorities saying that the crash killed all 74 people on board, including six crew members and three Russian servicemen.
On the other hand, Ukrainian officials confirmed last week that a prisoner swap was due to happen that day but said that it had been called off.
This is a developing story. Please follow HNGN for more updates.
