Ukraine and Russia announce largest prisoner swap since start of war

[CharlieH]

 

Ukraine and Russia have announced the largest exchange of prisoners since the start of the war, involving the return of more than 200 soldiers from each side in a deal mediated by the United Arab Emirates.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Wednesday in a message on social media, along with images of some of the freed PoWs: “230 of our people. Today, 213 soldiers and sergeants, 11 officers, and six civilians returned home.”

 

Zelenskiy said some of the returned soldiers had “fought in Mariupol and Azovstal”, referring to the siege of the Azovstal steel plant during the Ukrainian defence of Mariupol, a southern Ukrainian port city now occupied by Russia.

Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that 248 Russian prisoners of war had been returned from Ukraine as a result of “complex” negotiations involving “humanitarian mediation” by the UAE.

Abu Dhabi, which retains friendly relations with Moscow, was last year similarly involved in helping mediate a sensitive prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine involving dozens of PoWs on each side.

Russia and Ukraine have periodically exchanged groups of prisoners in the course of the war, which is now in its 22nd month, but the swaps have become less frequent and the last took place in early August.

At the time, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said 2,576 Ukrainians had been freed in prisoner swaps since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

More than 4,000 Ukrainian service personnel are believed to remain in captivity in Russia as prisoners of war, but the precise numbers of PoWs on the Ukrainian and Russian sides remain unknown as the military of neither country discloses such data.

Ukrainian families are often deprived of even elementary information about their location and wellbeing. Prisoners who have returned in exchanges have given extensive accounts of mistreatment, humiliation and torture in Russian captivity.

 

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[impulse]

Be nice to get home for a few days, but then I imagine it'll be right back to the meat grinder...