KYIV (Reuters) – Russia and Ukraine exchanged a total of 206 prisoners on Saturday following talks brokered by the United Arab Emirates, officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that all 103 returned Ukrainians are military personnel – 82 soldiers and privates and 21 officers.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 103 Russian soldiers who were exchanged were captured in the Kursk border region, where Ukrainian forces launched an unexpected attack in August.
“Our people are at home,” Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app. “We successfully returned another 103 fighters from Russian captivity to Ukraine.”
Zelensky released pictures of servicemen wrapped in the national blue and yellow flag, hugging each other, talking on mobile phones and taking a group photo at an undisclosed location.
The exchange was brokered by the UAE, the emirate’s state news agency WAM said. This is reportedly the eighth such mediation in the country since early 2024.
Kiev and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, and Saturday’s exchange was the third since Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in early August.
Ukrainian officials have previously said that its forces captured at least 600 Russian soldiers during the intervention, which would help return captured Ukrainians.
Ukrainian ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets said that most of the freed Ukrainians were in Russian captivity from the first days of the occupation.
He posted a short video on the Telegram messaging app showing soldiers standing in front of the bus and shouting “Glory to Ukraine”.
Lubinets said that so far, Kiev has ensured the return of 3,672 Ukrainians in 57 exchanges.
