President Zelenskyy says a complete of three,135 Ukrainians had been free of Russian captivity and hopes exchanges proceed.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 100 prisoners of conflict (POWs) every following mediation by the United Arab Emirates.
In asserting the change as a “success”, the Gulf nation’s Ministry of International Affairs mentioned on Friday that it was its third mediation effort between Moscow and Kyiv since December because it known as for dialogue and de-escalation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned his nation “will make each effort to proceed prisoner exchanges”, in a Friday submit on X.
Ukraine returns its individuals and can make each effort to proceed prisoner exchanges. In order that our individuals can come again residence. I thank everybody who assists us on this and ensures this final result. pic.twitter.com/2YakQePeM6
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 9, 2024
Russia’s Ministry of Defence, in a submit on Telegram, famous the UAE’s “humanitarian mediation”.
To date, 3,135 Ukrainian POWs have been free of Russian captivity, Zelenskyy mentioned on social media on Thursday evening.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of the intelligence directorate on the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, urged Ukrainians to ignore scepticism concerning the time concerned in a sophisticated course of.
“As you possibly can see, it has taken a little bit of time, however the one factor that issues is the outcome. Look over there and you’ve got the reply to your query,” Budanov mentioned on the undisclosed website of the servicemen’s return.
In January, the 2 nations exchanged 195 POWs every, within the first prisoner swap for the reason that crash of a Russian navy transport airplane that Moscow mentioned was carrying 65 Ukrainian troopers.
The Il-76 transport airplane was downed in Russia’s Belgorod area. Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of downing the airplane utilizing a US Patriot missile.
Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied that it downed the airplane and has demanded proof of who was on board.
Each side have carried out periodic prisoner swaps by way of intermediaries for the reason that conflict started almost two years in the past, regardless of the absence of any peace talks between them for the reason that early months of the battle.
The largest change was on January 3, after they traded a complete of 478 captives following mediation by the UAE.
Putin warned in an interview that defeating Russia in Ukraine was “impossible by definition”, however insisted he was not searching for to broaden the conflict to neighbouring nations corresponding to Poland and Latvia.
He repeated his declare that invading Ukraine was essential to cease the nation from threatening Russia by becoming a member of NATO, denied that he had territorial ambitions throughout Europe, and insisted he would solely ship troops into neighbouring nations if attacked first.