Russia and Ukraine exchange 103 prisoners each in deal mediated by UAE

It is the 2nd specified speech since Ukraine launched a astonishment incursion into Russia’s Kursk portion connected August 6.

Russia and Ukraine person exchanged 103 prisoners of warfare from each side, some countries confirmed, with the United Arab Emirates acting arsenic an intermediary.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said connected Saturday that it swapped 103 Ukrainian soldiers held captive for an adjacent fig of Russian POWs.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “Our radical are home.”

The speech of a full of 206 prisoners was facilitated successful the UAE’s eighth specified mediation, the Gulf nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said successful a connection connected societal media level X.

“We person successfully brought backmost different 103 warriors from Russian captivity to Ukraine,” Zelenskyy posted connected X connected Saturday.

The freed Ukrainians included 82 privates and sergeants and 21 officers from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, borderline guards, and constabulary officers, helium said.

The Russian Defence Ministry said “103 Russian servicemen captured successful the Kursk portion were returned from territory controlled by the Kyiv regime” adding that “in return, 103 Ukrainian service prisoners of warfare were handed over”.

Ukrainian servicemen clasp the flags of their brigade and the Ukrainian nationalist emblem aft being released from Russian captivity astatine an undisclosed determination adjacent the Ukrainian-Belarusian borderline [Anatolii Stepanov/AFP]

Ukrainian forces crossed the borderline into occidental Kursk past period aided with drones, dense weaponry and artillery, catching Russia off-guard.

The Russian POWs were successful Belarus “where they are being provided with the indispensable intelligence and aesculapian assistance, arsenic good arsenic an accidental to interaction their relatives”, according to the Defence Ministry successful Moscow.

In August, the 2 countries exchanged 115 POWs each, with the UAE acting arsenic an intermediary.

Both sides person carried retired periodic captive swaps via intermediaries since Russia’s full-scale penetration of Ukraine successful 2022, contempt the lack of immoderate bid talks betwixt them since the aboriginal months of the conflict.

The UAE ministry said connected Saturday that the full fig of captives exchanged done its mediation efforts present stood astatine 1,994.

One of the biggest exchanges was connected January 3, erstwhile the warring countries traded a full of 478 captives pursuing mediation by the UAE.

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies