Russia and Ukraine conducted a major exchange of prisoners Saturday, 206 in all, in their second such swap in two days, following negotiations mediated by the United Arab Emirates, officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that all 103 Ukrainians returned were from the military — 82 soldiers and privates and 21 officers.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the 103 Russian soldiers exchanged had been taken prisoner in the Kursk border region where Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion in August.
“Our people are home,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app. “We have successfully brought back another 103 warriors from Russian captivity to Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy 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 full-scale invasion in February 2022, and Saturday’s swap was the third since Ukraine began its incursion into the Kursk region.
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 most 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.
