Russia, Ukraine exchange 206 prisoners in second swap in two days
Russia and Ukraine conducted a major exchange of prisoners
on Saturday, 206 in all, in their second such swap in two days, following
negotiations mediated by the United Arab Emirates, officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that all 103 Ukrainians
returned were from the military - 82 soldiers and privates and 21 officers.
Russian Defence Ministry said that the 103 Russian soldiers
exchanged had been taken prisoner in the border Kursk region where Ukrainian
forces launched a surprise incursion in August.
"Our people are home," Zelenskiy said on the
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 exchange was mediated by the UAE, Emirati state news
agency WAM said. It was the country's eighth such mediation since the start of
2024, it said.
Kyiv and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since
Russia's invasion in February 2022, and Saturday's swap was the third since
Ukraine began a cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk region in early
August.
Ukrainian officials have previously said its troops had
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.
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