Released Ukrainian prisoners of war, 24 August 2024. Photo: Zelenskiy / Official
As Ukrainians celebrated Independence Day on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Kyiv and Moscow had each exchanged 115 prisoners of war in a swap brokered by the United Arab Emirates.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets confirmed that the exchange, which coincided with the 33rd anniversary of Ukraine’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union, had gone ahead, adding that the returnees, many of whom had serious health problems, were now back in Ukraine.
Russia had initiated the exchange, Lubinets told journalists earlier this month, after the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) captured fighters from Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces battalion during its ongoing offensive into Russia’s Kursk region, which began on 6 August. Akhmat Commander Apti Alaudinov denied that any of his forces had been captured.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that all the released Russian troops were now in Belarus where they were being provided with medical and psychological assistance and an opportunity to contact relatives ahead of their repatriation to Russia.
According to Russian nonprofit organisation Nash Vykhod, which searches for missing soldiers and lobbies for their safe return to Russia, all the Russian prisoners of war released in the exchange were conscripts.
