By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Russia and Ukraine on Saturday completed a major exchange of a total number of 206 prisoners, the second of such swap in two days, a breakthrough from mediation backed by the United Arab Emirates, officials said.
All 103 Ukrainians returned were from the country’s military, comprising 82 soldiers and privates, as well as 21 officers, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Also, Russian Defence Ministry said the 103 soldiers exchanged had been taken prisoners in the border Kursk region where Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion in August.
“Our people are home,” Zelenskiy said in a message on Telegram messaging app. “We have successfully brought back another 103 warriors from Russian captivity to Ukraine.”
Zelenskiy posted pictures of servicemen wrapped in the national blue and yellow flag, hugging each other, talking on mobile phones and posing for group photographs at an undisclosed location.
The prison swap was mediated by the UAE, Emirati state news agency WAM said.
It was the country’s eighth of such mediation since the start of 2024, it said.
Heritage Times HT reports that Kyiv and Moscow have on a regular basis exchanged prisoners since Russia’s invasion in February 2022
The swap on Saturday was the third since Ukraine began a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region early August.
Ukrainian officials had announced that its troops captured at least 600 Russian soldiers during the incursion, and that this would help it secure the return of captured Ukrainians.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s ombudsman, said the majority of the freed Ukrainians had been in Russian captivity since the early days of the invasion.
He posted a short video on the Telegram messaging app showing the servicemen standing in front of a bus and shouting “Glory to Ukraine.”
Lubinets said that Kyiv had so far secured the return of 3,672 Ukrainians in 57 exchanges.
