This is the second incident since Ukraine launched a surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region on August 6.
Russia and Ukraine each exchanged 103 prisoners of war, both countries confirmed, with the United Arab Emirates acting as an intermediary.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that 103 Ukrainian soldiers held captive had been exchanged for an equal number of Russian prisoners.
“Our people have returned home,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
A total of 206 prisoners were swapped in the eighth round of UAE-sponsored mediation, the Gulf state’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on social media platform X.
“We successfully brought 103 fighters from Russian captivity to Ukraine,” Zelensky posted on X on Saturday.
He said the freed Ukrainians included 82 soldiers and sergeants, and 21 officers from the Ukrainian Army, National Guard, Border Guard and police forces.
“103 Russian soldiers captured in the Kursk region returned to the territory controlled by the Kiev regime,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that “103 Ukrainian prisoners of war were handed over in their place.”
Last month, Ukrainian troops crossed the border west of Kursk, backed by drones, heavy weapons and artillery, sending Russia into a panic.
According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, the Russian prisoners were in Belarus and were “receiving the necessary psychological and medical support and the opportunity to contact their families.”
In August, the two countries exchanged 115 prisoners each, with the UAE acting as intermediary.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the two sides have periodically exchanged prisoners through intermediaries, but there have been no peace talks between the two sides since the early days of the conflict.
The total number of prisoners exchanged through mediation efforts has now reached 1,994, the UAE’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.
One of the biggest deals took place on January 3, when the two warring countries traded a total of 478 prisoners under UAE mediation.
