Regardless of ongoing hostilities, Russia and Ukraine have managed to swap a whole bunch of prisoners all through the two-and-half-year battle – typically in offers brokered by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia or Turkey.
The announcement comes a day after Zelenskyy mentioned 49 Ukrainian POWs had been returned from Russia, and three weeks in the past each side swapped 115 prisoners every in a deal additionally mediated by the UAE.
The UAE’s international ministry hailed the deal as a “success” and thanked each side for his or her cooperation on Saturday.
RUSSIAN ADVANCES
The prisoner swap got here as Russia pushed forward in east Ukraine, the place it claims to have captured a string of villages in current weeks.
The Russian defence ministry mentioned in a every day briefing it had “liberated” the village of Zhelanne Pershe, lower than 30km from the important thing Ukrainian-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
Pokrovsk lies on the intersection of a key street that provides Ukrainian troops and cities throughout the jap entrance and has lengthy been a goal for Moscow’s military.
Greater than half of town’s 60,000 residents have fled for the reason that invasion started in February 2022, with evacuations ramping up in current weeks as Moscow’s military closes in.
Ukraine had hoped its main cross-border incursion into the Kursk area final month would decelerate Russia’s advances within the east.
On Friday, Zelenskyy mentioned Moscow had been slowed down considerably however conceded the state of affairs on the jap entrance was “very troublesome”.
Russia in the meantime claimed this week to have clawed again a swath of territory within the Kursk area, because it mounted what gave the impression to be a counter-offensive.
