Russia and Ukraine announced Wednesday, January 3, that they had each released more than 230 prisoners of war in their largest exchange operation of this type in nearly two years of conflict and in the midst of an escalation of bombing. According to kyiv and Moscow, the exchange was made possible by mediation from the United Arab Emirates
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This is the first exchange of prisoners of war since the summer, the Ukrainian authorities having accused Moscow of blocking negotiations on this subject. “ Following a complex negotiation process, 248 Russian servicemen were repatriated from territory controlled by the kyiv regime », rejoiced the Russian Ministry of Defense in a press release on Telegram.
“ More than 200 of our soldiers and civilians returned from Russian captivity », For his part announced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to the Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner, Dmytro Loubinets, exactly 230 Ukrainian servicemen were exchanged during this “ 49th exchange » between kyiv and Moscow since the start of the Russian assault in February 2022.
It is “ the largest in terms of number of repatriated (Ukrainian) defenders “, affirmed the Ukrainian coordination center responsible for prisoners of war. Among them are 66 defenders of the Azovstal factory at the time of the siege of the city of Mariupol by the Russian army in 2022, according to a Ukrainian official who took part in the negotiations.
In total, since February 24, 2022, “ 2,828 (Ukrainian) defenders returned home! », affirmed Mr. Loubinets on Wednesday. According to Ukrainian media, the previous exchange of prisoners of war dates back to last August.
Intensification of violence
According to kyiv and Moscow, Wednesday’s exchange was made possible by mediation by the United Arab Emirates, an important partner of Russia in several humanitarian, economic and energy issues.
This exchange comes amid an intensification of violence between Russians and Ukrainians in recent days, with strikes from both sides leaving dozens of civilians dead and injured.
A Russian missile attack against Ukraine left around fifty dead on Friday, followed by an unprecedented Ukrainian bombing of the Russian town of Belgorod on Saturday (25 dead) and then new large-scale Russian strikes against kyivits surroundings and Kharkiv in the east on Tuesday (five dead).
Small-scale Russian bombings killed three people in two regions of Ukraine on Wednesday. The previous evening, the Russian region of Belgorod had been attacked by four waves of Ukrainian strikes, which left one dead and eleven injured.
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(with AFP)