Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war for the first time in the conflict on Thursday, exactly a month after fighting began.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on Thursday that the exchange was made by order of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to the Ukrainian Volunteer Journalists Initiative.
Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, said 10 Ukrainian soldiers were released and 10 Russian soldiers were returned to their country.
The minister also said that 11 Russian civilian seamen were exchanged for 19 Ukrainian civilian seamen.
Russian civilian sailors were rescued by Ukraine when their ship flooded, while Ukrainian civilian sailors were taken away by Russia after being found on a rescue ship bound for Snake Island to retrieve troops.
Russia will also return the rescue ship to Ukraine, which the agency said will send it to a port in Turkey.
The exchange comes as Ukraine and Russia have reportedly suffered thousands of casualties in the ongoing invasion of Moscow.
NATO this week estimated as many as 15,000 Russian soldiers were killed, with as many as 40,000 dead, wounded, captured or missing. However, Russia has offered much lower casualty figures, raising the official number of military casualties in Ukraine to 1,400 on Friday.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that thousands of his people had died in the conflict, including at least 121 children. He previously said on March 12 that around 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in action.