Russia and Ukraine have carried out a major prisoner exchange, with at least 150 people from both sides set to return home by New Year’s Eve, partially mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
“The return of our people from Russian captivity is always very good news for each of us. And today is one of those days. Our team managed to bring back 189 Ukrainians ” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a message posted on Telegram on Monday.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that 150 prisoners from both sides had returned home, but there was no immediate explanation for the difference in numbers.
According to Ukraine’s Exchange Coordination Center, 87 soldiers returned to Ukraine, 43 from the National Guard, 33 from the Border Guards, 24 from the Navy, and two civilians. The group reportedly included 14 police officers.
The center said the Ukrainians repatriated to Russia were prisoners of war captured during the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region that began in late summer and resulted in Kiev occupying a small part of Russian territory. said.
Among the stated objectives of Operation Kursk were to use it as a bargaining chip in future negotiations and to capture prisoners to be exchanged for Ukrainians held by Russia.
Some of the people Russia returned on Monday had been detained since the early months of the war, which began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
The exchange, the 11th of the year, brings the total number of Ukrainian prisoners returned by Russia this year to 1,358, the Coordination Center said, adding that Russia still has many more. “We are working to free everyone from Russian captivity. This is our goal. We have not forgotten anyone,” Zelenskyy said.
Returned prisoners have described physical and psychological brutality in their captivity, including repeated beatings, humiliating strip searches, threatening interrogations, and orders to sing the Russian national anthem and recite Russian poetry, the Guardian reported. told.
Maria Krajmyk of the Media Human Rights Initiative in Kyiv, whose organization has interviewed more than 100 returning prisoners, said many returned with injuries from malnutrition, neglect and abuse that required amputations. He said there were also people. “Almost everyone we spoke to had been tortured,” she said last year.
President Zelenskyy shared a photo of some of those exchanged on Monday sitting on a horse-drawn carriage and holding a Ukrainian flag.
Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova released a video of Russian soldiers gathered outside a bus. “Soon our players will celebrate the New Year in their homeland, hugging relatives and friends,” she wrote in a Telegram message accompanying the video.
The exchange is a rare piece of good news for Ukraine, as families in both countries traditionally gather for New Year’s Eve, one of the biggest holidays of the year.
Kiev is cautiously awaiting Donald Trump’s return to the White House and watching to see what his stated goal of bringing early peace to the conflict will look like in practice.
Some hope that Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, will soon realize that President Vladimir Putin has little interest in a deal and push for more military aid to Ukraine. Some fear Mr. Trump will crush Ukraine, given his longstanding admiration for the Russian president.
On Monday, President Joe Biden’s government announced nearly $6 billion (£4.8 billion) in military and budget aid to Ukraine as part of a rush to ramp up aid ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
“Today, I am proud to announce nearly $2.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine as its people continue to defend their independence and freedom from Russian aggression,” Biden said in a statement. The package would allow the Pentagon to take weapons from U.S. inventories and quickly send them to Ukraine.
At the same time, the US Treasury announced $3.4 billion in direct budget support to Ukraine.
