It’s the second one such alternate since Ukraine introduced a awe incursion into Russia’s Kursk patch on August 6.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 103 prisoners of battle from every facet, each international locations showed, with the United Arab Emirates appearing as an middleman.
The Russian Ministry of Defence stated on Saturday that it swapped 103 Ukrainian squaddies held captive for an equivalent collection of Russian POWs.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated: “Our people are home.”
The alternate of a complete of 206 prisoners used to be facilitated within the UAE’s 8th such mediation, the Gulf population’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs stated in a remark on social media platform X.
“We have successfully brought back another 103 warriors from Russian captivity to Ukraine,” Zelenskyy posted on X on Saturday.
The freed Ukrainians integrated 82 privates and sergeants and 21 officials from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Nationwide Preserve of Ukraine, border guards, and law enforcement officials, he stated.
The Russian Defence Ministry stated “103 Russian servicemen captured in the Kursk region were returned from territory controlled by the Kyiv regime” including that “in return, 103 Ukrainian army prisoners of war were handed over”.
Ukrainian forces crossed the border into western Kursk latter while aided with drones, obese weaponry and artillery, catching Russia off-guard.
The Russian POWs had been in Belarus “where they are being provided with the necessary psychological and medical assistance, as well as an opportunity to contact their relatives”, consistent with the Defence Ministry in Moscow.
In August, the 2 international locations exchanged 115 POWs every, with the UAE appearing as an middleman.
Each side have performed periodic prisoner swaps by the use of intermediaries since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, in spite of the being lacking any leisure talks among them for the reason that early months of the war.
The UAE ministry stated on Saturday that the entire collection of captives exchanged via its mediation efforts now stood at 1,994.
One of the crucial largest exchanges used to be on January 3, when the warring international locations traded a complete of 478 captives following mediation by way of the UAE.