A few hours earlier and in the same location, both sides also handed over the bodies of soldiers killed in action.
The Ukrainian prisoners of war, including four civilians, were returned in several buses heading to the northern Sumy region.
This was the fourth prisoner exchange this year and the 52nd since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
With the exchanges, including today's, Ukraine has recovered a total of 3,210 Ukrainian military and civilian personnel since the start of the war, according to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War of Ukraine.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia disclose how many prisoners of war there are in total.
According to UN reports, the majority of Ukrainian prisoners of war are subjected to medical neglect, severe and systematic ill-treatment and even torture during detention.
There were also isolated reports of abuses against Russian soldiers, particularly during capture or transit to places of detention.
At least a third of Ukrainians who returned home suffered "injuries, serious illnesses and disabilities," according to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Among those who returned today were 19 Ukrainian fighters from Cobra Island, 14 people captured at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and 10 fighters from the city of Mariupol, which was captured by Russia.
The POWs traveled through small villages before arriving in Sumy, where they were taken to hospitals for two weeks of rehabilitation.
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