Russia and Ukraine exchanged 205 captured soldiers each in their fifth prisoner swap of the year, authorities in both countries announced Tuesday.
“As a result of negotiations, 205 Russian servicemen were returned,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. “In exchange, 205 prisoners of war of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were handed over.”
The United Arab Emirates helped broker the exchange, the ministry said, adding that the returning Russian soldiers were being examined by doctors and psychologists in Belarus.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed the swap in a post on social media, sharing photos of soldiers with Ukrainian flags draped over their backs.
“Our people are free. Our people are home,” Zelensky wrote on X. “Young and older men from almost all types and branches of the Armed Forces. Defenders of Mariupol and the entire front line.”
“They have been scattered across many Russian regions, imprisoned within a system whose only purpose was to torment them and destroy their humanity,” he added.
Russia and Ukraine have conducted dozens of prisoner exchanges since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
AFP contributed reporting.
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