Russia and Ukraine completed a large prisoner exchange on Wednesday, trading each other a combined 372 soldiers in custody in a swap brokered by the United Arab Emirates. The exchange was confirmed by both Moscow and Kyiv and represented one of the rare cases of collaboration between the two belligerent states since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Russian Defense Ministry said 175 Ukrainian prisoners of war were transferred, as well as 22 seriously injured captives. In exchange, 175 Russian prisoners were released by Ukraine. The exchange was announced by the Kremlin on Tuesday, after negotiations between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy greeted the exchange as one of the biggest prisoner swaps since the conflict started. He pointed out that some of the released Ukrainians had been illegally held by Russia on “false charges.” Among them were troops who had defended Mariupol, a city which was hit with a brutal siege by Russian troops in the conflict’s initial months.
Zelenskyy reaffirmed Ukraine’s intention to secure the release of all its detained soldiers and thanked the UAE for facilitating the talks. He has before demanded an “all-for-all” prisoner exchange as part of wider ceasefire talks.
Russia characterized the release of injured Ukrainian soldiers as a “gesture of goodwill,” while Zelenskyy said that the return of the 22 severely wounded soldiers was made possible by special diplomatic moves beyond the usual exchange procedure.
The returned Russian soldiers were airlifted to Belarus, the Russian defense ministry said, and are receiving medical and psychological treatment, as well as being given the chance to reunite with their families.
This is the latest swap after a sequence of prisoner exchanges made since war began, an indication that amid fighting, there are still compromises willing to be made on both sides for humanitarian terms.
