Russia, Ukraine confirm swap of 372 war prisoners

KYIV: Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 372 soldiers in a prisoner swap brokered by the United Arab Emirates, Moscow and Kyiv said on Wednesday (Mar 19).

Prisoner swaps and the exchange of remains of killed soldiers is one of the only areas of cooperation between the warring countries since the Kremlin launched the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

The Kremlin announced the swap on Tuesday, following talks between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

The Russian defence ministry said it had handed over 175 Ukrainian prisoners of war and 22 "seriously wounded" Ukrainian captives while Kyiv had delivered 175 Russian prisoners in return.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the exchange as one of the largest of the war and said that some among the Ukrainians released had been "persecuted by Russia for fictitious crimes".

Zelenskyy said that some of the Ukrainians returned on Wednesday had fought in the southern city of Mariupol, which was subjected to a brutal siege by Russian forces in the early months of their invasion.

The Ukrainian leader, who has called for an all-for-all exchange with Russia as part of ceasefire negotiations, thanked the UAE for its mediation and vowed to return all prisoners.

Russia said it returned the Ukrainian wounded prisoners as a "gesture of goodwill" while Zelenskyy said the nearly two dozen Ukrainians had been returned "through measures outside of exchanges", without elaborating.

"All the Russian soldiers are in Belarus, where they are being provided with the necessary psychological and medical assistance and given the opportunity to contact their relatives," the Russian defence ministry said.

The two sides have swapped hundreds of prisoners since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive in February 2022.