Russia and Ukraine each said Wednesday that 150 of their captured soldiers had been released in the latest prisoner-of-war exchange, one of the few ongoing areas of cooperation between the two countries amid nearly three years of war.
"Some of the guys had been in captivity for more than two years," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post, announcing the return of 150 Ukrainian troops. He did not mention the release of Russian soldiers.
Russia's Defense Ministry confirmed the exchange, stating that 150 Russian prisoners had been returned from Ukrainian captivity. The freed Russian soldiers were undergoing medical checks in allied Belarus before heading back to Russia, it added.
Zelensky shared photos of the returning Ukrainian troops, some draped in national flags, sitting in a bus on their way home.
Both Kyiv and Moscow credited the United Arab Emirates for mediating the exchange, as it has done in previous prisoner swaps.
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