Ukraine and Russia Complete Major Prisoner Swap

Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the two countries conducted a major exchange of prisoners on Saturday, with 206 prisoners swapped, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in a Telegram post that all 103 Ukrainians who were returned were members of the military, including 82 soldiers and privates, along with 21 officers.

Zelensky expressed his gratitude and said, "Our people are home. We have successfully brought back another 103 warriors from Russian captivity to Ukraine."

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the 103 Russian soldiers involved in the swap had been captured in the Kursk region where Ukrainian forces launched an unexpected cross-border incursion in August, Reuters reported on Saturday.

The exchange followed negotiations mediated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and marked the second such swap in just two days. The UAE's role as a mediator in the exchange was reported by the Emirati state news agency WAM, noting that this was the country's eighth successful mediation since the start of this year.

Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries via email for comment.

Prisoner swaps between Kyiv and Moscow have been frequent since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. This latest exchange is the third since Ukrainian forces initiated its incursion into the Kursk region.

According to Reuters, Ukrainian officials previously stated that their forces had captured at least 600 Russian soldiers during last month's operation, a factor that could help facilitate the return of captured Ukrainian soldiers.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, revealed that many of the freed Ukrainians had been held in Russian captivity since the early days of the invasion, Reuters reported.

According to Lubinets, Ukraine has secured the release of 3,672 of its citizens in a total of 57 prisoner exchanges since the conflict began.

Saturday's prisoner swap comes more than a month since Russia's exchange of political prisoners for spies with the West marked the largest swap of its kind at the time since the end of the Cold War.

In August, Russia was handed eight spies and agents, including political assassin Vadim Krasikov who was convicted in Germany over a 2019 killing in Berlin.

In return, Russian President Vladimir Putin freed 16 prisoners, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American citizen who was detained in Russia in March 2023, and U.S. citizen Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine and computer security official who has been in jail in Russia since 2018.

Aside from Whelan and Gershkovich, Russia released political prisoners Ilya Yashin; Vladimir Kara-Murza; Alsu Kurmasheva; Andrei Pivovarov; Oleg Orlov; Sasha Skochilenko; Lilia Chanysheva; Ksenia Fadeyeva; Rico Krieger; Kevin Lik; Demuri Voronin; Vadim Ostanin; Patrick Schoebel; and German Moyzhes.

Russia was handed in exchange Krasikov; Russian intelligence officers Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva; GRU agents Mikhail Mikushin and Pavel Rubtsov; hacker Roman Seleznev; business owner Vladislav Klyushin; and Vadim Konoshchenok, who identified himself as an "FSB colonel" in documents reviewed by Russian investigative site, The Insider.

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