Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists in the country’s war-torn east exchanged 200 prisoners on Sunday, swapping detained fighters for civilians and servicemen held captive in some cases for years in two breakaway regions.

Kyiv handed over to separatists five riot policemen suspected of killing protesters during a pro-Western uprising in 2014 as part of the swap, sparking public outrage.

“The mutual release of the detainees has ended,” the Ukrainian presidential office said in a statement on Facebook, specifying that Kyiv received 76 captives.

Separatist officials said the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics took in a total of 124.

Later the Ukrainian presidency published the list of Ukrainians freed from captivity, which included 12 military personnel and 64 civilians.

Two journalists who contributed to the Ukrainian service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Stanyslav Aseyev and Oleg Galazyuk, were also freed by rebels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the swap as “positive”.

The exchange came after Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy held their first face-to-face talks in Paris on 9 December and agreed measures to de-escalate Europe’s only active war.

Read more: euractiv