President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Thursday evening during an address to the nation that 106 Ukrainian soldiers who fought in Bakhmut returned home after the exchange of prisoners.

• “Today we have another positive result from our team working on the exchange of prisoners. We returned another 106 of our soldiers from Russian captivity – they fought in the Bakhmut direction.”
• It is very important that many of these 106 people had no information at all – they were considered missing. But we found them. I brought them back home. 8 officers, 98 soldiers and sergeants…”
• Of course, I am also grateful to every soldier who made sure we had an adequate exchange fund. Everyone on the front lines should remember this: the more Russian prisoners of war we take, the more ours will return.”

Zelenskyi also announced that he met with the Minister of Defense of Sweden in Kyiv on Thursday.

• “I thanked him for his continued support of our country and our soldiers. The meeting discussed strengthening our defense with armored vehicles. We also discussed our air coalition that we are building with our partners.”
• “Today, Finland sent a new package of defense support – the 16th. The total amount of this package is more than 100 million euros. Thank you for that!”
• Today, the Council of the European Union also adopted an important decision for Ukraine: the liberalization of trade in Ukrainian products has been extended for another year. In fact, this means the complete abolition of taxes and quotas by June 2024.”
• “This is a new stage of sectoral integration of our economy – Ukraine and the entire European Union – which will certainly make us all stronger in Europe. As we move towards the European Union, we must make this liberalization, which is still temporary, permanent and without exceptions or limitations. Which, in fact, corresponds to the spirit of a united and free Europe – without barriers,” he concluded, according to News.ro.

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