Ukraine, Russia exchange hundreds of prisoners in biggest swap of war

It offered both further humanitarian efforts and to find a peaceful solution to the war.

A video released by Ukrainian authorities showed returning prisoners draped in the country’s blue and yellow flag filing off a bus, singing the national anthem and shouting the patriotic greeting “Glory to Ukraine”.

Most, but not all, appeared to be in good health. One returnee shouted: “We are home! You didn’t forget us!”

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The Russian Ministry of Defence released a similar video of returning uniformed prisoners arriving in Belgorod in buses. “I’ll be home in five hours, roughly speaking, that’s going to be a joy,” said one unnamed man.

Despite a lack of talks on how to end the 22-month war, Kyiv and Moscow have held many prisoner swaps since the early months of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

But the rate of the exchanges dropped in 2023 and the last one until this week’s was in August.

Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s HUR Military Intelligence agency, singled out the UAE’s “direct role”, saying: “After a significant amount of time, we managed to carry out a very difficult prisoner swap”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was “truly a great day for Ukraine” and vowed to press on with further swaps facilitated by expanding what he called an “exchange fund” of captured Russian soldiers.

“The more Russians we capture, the more effective the negotiations regarding swaps will be,” he said in his nightly video address.

He said some of the returnees had been previously listed as missing.

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Ukraine’s returnees came from various branches of its armed forces and included participants in the nearly three-month defence of the Azovstal steel plant in the port of Mariupol before it was captured by Russian forces in May 2022.

On the Russian side, a Defence Ministry statement said its released prisoners would undergo medical checks and treatment.

Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Tatyana Moskalkova, thanked President Vladimir Putin and the military and intelligence services for their efforts in the exchange.

The announcement came as Russia continued to strike frontline areas of Ukraine, killing three people and wounding at least one, local officials said.

Putin vowed earlier this week to intensify strikes on the country following an unprecedented attack on the Russian city of Belgorod over the weekend.

With the war nearing its second anniversary, Zelensky has urged his Western allies to keep up support amid intensified Russian attacks.

Russian forces launched a wave of air strikes on Ukrainian cities last Friday, killing 53 people, including 30 in the capital Kyiv, authorities said in an updated toll Wednesday.

Moscow has meanwhile continued an offensive near Bakhmut and Avdiivka on the eastern front, as well as Kupiansk in the northeast, Ukrainian army officials said.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse