A UAE-mediated prisoner swap between Moscow and Kiev has brought 103 Russian servicemen home, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Saturday. The POWs had been captured by the advancing Ukrainian military in Russia’s Kursk Region.
On August 6, Kiev launched its largest attack on internationally recognized Russian territory since the outbreak of hostilities in February 2022. The incursion has largely been halted, but Ukrainian troops still control a number of settlements in the border area.
Commenting on the operation last month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky explained that one of its objectives was to bolster Kiev’s “exchange fund” of Russian POWS. He claimed at the time that over a hundred Russian service members had been captured.
In a post on its Telegram channel on Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that “as a result of the negotiating process 103 Russian service members, who had been captured in Kursk Region, were returned from territories under the Kiev regime’s control on September 14.”
The freed troops are currently receiving medical and psychological assistance in Belarus, the statement read. According to the ministry, the former POWs will soon be transferred to Russia, where they will continue their rehabilitation.
Moscow, too, handed over 103 captives to Kiev, as reported by the Russian Defense Ministry.
The previous exchange – unless there were any unannounced swaps – took place last month, when 115 soldiers from each side were returned. Moscow said at the time that those Russian POWs had also been captured in Kursk Region.