Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels on Sunday each swapped 73 prisoners who had been captured in eastern Ukraine.
The prisoner swap took place 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) north of Donetsk, with members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in attendance.
"We were surrounded. We had to surrender. We were told: 'Surrender, or in half-an-hour everything will be destroyed here.' So we had to surrender," said one captured Ukrainian soldier.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine has been raging since mid-April, claiming more than 3,000 lives, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled from the fighting.
A ceasefire deal signed on 5 September has been riddled by violations from the start, and both sides have made it clear that they are regrouping and rearming in case the fighting starts anew.
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