Russia and Ukraine carried out a major swap of 206 prisoners on Saturday, the second exchange in two days following talks brokered by the United Arab Emirates, officials said. President Volodymyr Zelensky credited the prisoner release to a recent incursion by his military into Russia. He said the freed Ukrainians – 82 soldiers and privates and 21 officers – had been captured since the early months of the war.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the 103 Russian servicemen who were exchanged were taken prisoner in the border Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces made a surprise incursion in August.
“Our people are home,” Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app. “We have successfully brought another 103 fighters back to Ukraine from Russian captivity.”
In his midnight video address, he thanked his fighting forces for their courage and the team that handled the exchange. “In particular, our operation in the Kursk region provided the necessary boost,” he said.
Zelensky posted photos of soldiers wrapped in the national blue and yellow flag, hugging each other, talking on mobile phones and posing for a group photo at an undisclosed location.
In his video address, he said those released included soldiers who fought to defend the city of Mariupol. The Azov brigade, which took part in the three-month defense of the port in 2022, said in a post on its Telegram channel that 23 of its men were among the detainees released on Saturday.
The exchange was mediated by the UAE, Emirati state news agency WAM reported. It was the country’s eighth such mediation since the start of 2024.
Kiev and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and Saturday’s swap was the third since Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in early August.
Ukrainian officials previously said Kiev’s forces had captured at least 600 Russian soldiers during the invasion, and that this would help secure the return of the captured Ukrainians.
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said Kiev had so far ensured the return of 3,672 Ukrainians in 57 exchanges.
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