KYIV: Ukraine said on Thursday it had captured more than 900 Russian troops over six months of fighting in the western Russian Kursk region.
Kyiv says a key goal of its struggling operation launched in August just over its border with Russia was to build up reserves of Russian soldiers to exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
“During the operation, Ukrainian forces captured 909 Russian servicemen, significantly replenishing the exchange fund,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement.
“This made it possible to bring home hundreds of Ukrainian defenders who had been held in Russian prisons,” it added.
Kyiv and Moscow still cooperate on prisoner exchanges despite being at war for nearly three years, and Ukraine has made returning its captured troops a priority.
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Last year, the Ukrainian military said its forces had captured more than 700 Russian troops during operations in the Kursk region.
After launched its shock offensive – the largest by a foreign army in Russia since World War II – Ukrainian forces have been losing the swathes of Russian territory they intially captured.
Kyiv says the ground it holds in Kursk will be an important bargaining chip in any future peace negotiations with Russia, whose forces have been making steady gains across the front line in eastern Ukraine.
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