UAE Mediates Exchange of 206 Prisoners Between Russia and Ukraine

New Delhi: The United Arab Emirates, Russia and Ukraine brokered an extradition deal that freed 206 people from both sides. This will be the UAE’s seventh arbitration since early 2024.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 21 officers and 82 privates and soldiers were among the 103 Ukrainians who returned from the armed forces.

103 Russian servicemen who had been swapped during an unexpected Ukrainian military invasion in the Kursk border area in August, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, had been apprehended.

“Our people are at home,” Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app. “We have successfully brought 103 more soldiers from Russian captivity to Ukraine.”

Zelensky also posted pictures of them, draped in the national blue and yellow flag, hugging each other, talking on mobile phones and posing for group photos.

According to Emirati state news agency WAM, the exchange was mediated by the United Arab Emirates.

Moscow and Kyiv frequently exchanged prisoners during the February 2022 invasion of Russia. Saturday’s exchange was the third such exchange since Ukraine began incurring border incursions into Russia’s Kursk region in early August.

According to officials, Ukrainian forces captured at least 600 Russian soldiers during the operation, which will facilitate the return of detained Ukrainians.

Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said most of the freed Ukrainians had been in Russian captivity since the early days of the invasion. He said Kyiv has so far repatriated 3,672 Ukrainians in 57 exchanges. He posted a short video on the Telegram messaging app, which shows him standing in front of a bus and shouting “Glory to Ukraine”.