On August 24, Russia and Ukraine swapped 115 prisoners of war each, with the United Arab Emirates facilitating the exchange, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
It is the first such exchange since Ukraine launched a surprise attack into Russia’s Kursk region on Aug 6, the biggest attack inside Russian territory by a foreign power since World War II.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the Russian servicemen swapped were captured in the Kursk region.
All released Russian soldiers are now in Belarus and will receive medical treatment and rehabilitation upon their return to Russia.
The ministry expressed gratitude for the UAE’s role in facilitating the prisoner swap.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a picture with Ukrainian POWs wrapped in the country’s blue and yellow flags and hugging each other.
He said that the returned were servicemen from the border guards, the national guard, navy and the armed forces.
Mr Zelensky expressed gratitude to the Ukrainian troops who helped replenish the pool of prisoners for exchange.
Kyiv has said it has carved out a buffer zone in an area that Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, has used to pound targets in Ukraine.
According to Mr Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s commissioner for human rights, 82 of the returned Ukrainians defended the port of Mariupol in 2022.
Confirming its role in facilitating the exchange, the UAE foreign ministry said that the total number of captives exchanged through its mediation efforts now stood at 1,788.
It is the seventh such exchange the UAE has mediated since Russia invaded Ukraine.
