NNA – Russia and Ukraine said on Wednesday they had completed a prisoner exchange, the first since the crash last week of a Russian military transport plane that Moscow says was carrying 65 Ukrainian soldiers ahead of a similar swap.
The Russian Defence Ministry said each side had got 195 soldiers back and that its own soldiers would be flown to Moscow to receive medical and psychological treatment.
It was cited by the RIA state news agency as saying that the United Arab Emirates had played a role in brokering the deal.
quot;On January 31, as a result of the negotiation process, 195 Russian servicemen who were in mortal danger in captivity were returned from territory controlled by the Kyiv regime. In return, exactly 195 prisoners from the armed forces of Ukraine were handed over,quot; the defence ministry said in a statement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on his official account on X that it was one of the biggest swaps so far. He gave a slightly higher number for the number of Ukrainians returned.
quot;Our people are back. 207 of them. We return them home no matter what,quot; said Zelenskiy. mdash; Reuters
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