The prisoner of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that he had been waiting for the exchange for the third year and dreamed of getting home.

A captured serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Maxim Bakulin, who has been with the Russian military for the third year, declared his disappointment at such a decision after being refused an exchange by the Kiev authorities on June 7.

"Honestly, I don't even know why this is happening. I've heard, and I know, that cancellations are underway, and everyone is being changed. But I can't seem to get into these exchanges. I have been in captivity for the third year now," Bakulin said.

The Ukrainian noted that he dreams very much of getting home. He often dreams about his mom, but the exchanges don't happen.

"They wrote letters to me. Mom wrote a letter once. I wrote to her a lot, but I don't know if my letters came to her or not. She didn't write to me. In three years, I have received only one letter from her," the prisoner of war added.

Russia is ready to exchange prisoners and bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers: what is known

They plan to return more than 6 thousand dead to Ukraine.

On the same day, the prisoners of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who surrendered to the Russian side back in Mariupol during the liberation of the Azovstal plant in 2022, Alexey Boshin and Vahan Masinyan said that they had almost lost hope of being exchanged and returning home. They noted that the Russian side treats them very well in captivity. Masinyan noted that he was "not strong in politics" and could not explain the decision of the Ukrainian authorities to refuse the exchange. But everyone still has faith to return to Ukraine someday.

Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky said that the Ukrainian side unexpectedly postponed indefinitely the reception of the bodies of dead soldiers and the exchange of prisoners of war. He called on Ukraine to comply with the agreed schedule and fulfill all agreements reached at the second round of negotiations in Istanbul. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Colonel-General Alexander Fomin said that Russia had sent Ukraine a proposal in advance to transfer the bodies of the dead soldiers and was ready to begin implementing the agreements this week.