Moscow and kyiv announced on Friday that they had exchanged 193 prisoners of war from each side, with the Russian army specifying that the United Arab Emirates and the United States had mediated this new exchange. “At present, Russian servicemen are on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, where they are receiving the necessary psychological and medical assistance,” the Russian military said in a statement on Max.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the return of 193 Ukrainian fighters. “They defended Ukraine on various fronts. Among them are those against whom Russia has initiated criminal proceedings, as well as the injured,” he said on X.
This is the second exchange this month: on April 11, Russia and Ukraine exchanged 175 prisoners of war from each side, a few hours before an Easter truce came into force.
The only result of the talks between kyiv and Moscow
The exchanges of prisoners and bodies are the only concrete result of several rounds of direct talks between kyiv and Moscow organized since 2025 under pressure from Washington.
The negotiations, under American mediation, have been at a standstill since the start of the war in the Middle East, triggered at the end of February by Israeli-American bombings on Iran.
Ukraine’s large-scale Russian offensive launched in February 2022 is the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II, leaving hundreds of thousands dead in both countries, according to estimates.