Prisoner swaps: Anastasia's story

Bringing soldiers back home is one of the few areas where Russia and Ukraine have made progress together in recent months, and another large scale prisoner swap started this week.

We talk to Anastasia - the wife of a Ukrainian soldier held captive since 2022, and released in May. But his new found freedom came against a backdrop of continuing Russian attacks on cities across Ukraine. We talk about whether we are seeing the retaliation for operation 'Spider Web'. Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and James Waterhouse. It was made by Arsenii Sokolov, and Polly Hope. The technical producer was Hannah Montgomery. The series producer was Chris Flynn. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480

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The BBC’s only English language programme entirely dedicated to the war in Ukraine and its fallout, Ukrainecast is your go-to podcast which investigates the biggest issues around the conflict: Could Putin push the nuclear button? How could Donald Trump end the war in 24 hours? What is the price for peace? The podcast is hosted by Newsnight presenter Victoria Derbyshire and BBC Monitoring’s Vitaly Shevchenko. Ukrainecast covers the most important topics around the conflict and speaks to the real people who’ve lived through several years of war. It also brings you agenda-setting interviews with special guests each week such as UK foreign secretary David Cameron, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and pre-eminent Russia expert Fiona Hill.

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GET IN TOUCH: You can join our Ukrainecastonline community here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord Send us a message or voicenote via WhatsApp to +443301239480 Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.ukYou can listen to the latest episode of Ukrainecast anytime on your smart speaker by saying “Alexa, Ask BBC Sounds for Ukrainecast."If you enjoy Ukrainecast (and if you’re reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below. The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd The Today Podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r Americast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p07h19zz Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p05299nl

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