Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists begin prisoner swap

Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have started a prisoner swap, the office of Ukrainian president said on Thursday.

It is the first swap in 2020 and Ukraine will take back 19 its citizens, the president's office said in a statement.

The conflict that broke out in 2014 killed more than 13,000 people, left a large swathe of Ukraine de facto controlled by the separatists and aggravated the deepest east-west rift since the Cold War.