Russia and Ukraine announced on Wednesday the exchange of approximately 448 prisoners, marking the first official exchange between the two countries in several months.
This exchange comes amid escalating mutual attacks and complex negotiations, mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated, “Following complex negotiations, 248 Russian military personnel were recovered from areas controlled by the Kiev government.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that “over 200 soldiers and civilians have returned from Russian captivity.”
Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubenets, reported that 230 Ukrainian soldiers were recovered in the “forty-ninth exchange” between Kiev and Moscow since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
The Ukrainian Coordination Center responsible for prisoners of war stated that this exchange is the “largest in terms of the number of Ukrainian defenders returned to their homeland.”
Lubenets stated on Wednesday that, since February 24, 2022, “2828 Ukrainian soldiers have returned home.”
The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the success of mediation efforts regarding the prisoner exchange between Moscow and Kiev.
The UAE Foreign Affairs statement declared that the success of the mediation efforts “reflects the friendship between the UAE and both Russia and Ukraine, supported by regular high-level contacts, resulting in one of the largest prisoner exchange operations between the two sides since the start of the war.”
The statement reaffirmed the UAE’s commitment to “continue efforts aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine.”
This exchange was announced amidst the recent escalation of attacks between Russia and Ukraine in the past few days, resulting in casualties and injuries among civilians.
Both Kyiv and Moscow stated that the exchange took place under the mediation of the United Arab Emirates, a significant partner of Russia in various humanitarian, economic, and energy-related issues.
In late November, Dmytro Lubenets accused Russia of “obstructing” any prisoner exchanges and expressed regret that “exchanges are not happening because Russia does not want them.”
In August, the Commissioner for Human Rights stated that Ukraine had managed to recover about 2600 of its citizens who had been captured since the start of the Russian invasion. Thousands of prisoners of war remain on both sides.
In recent months, Moscow has increased trials to impose very harsh sentences on Ukrainian prisoners of war.
