Largest prisoner exchange since the start of the invasion: details emerge

The United Arab Emirates has provided assistance in the return of Ukrainian citizens from Russian captivity. The head of the Defence Ministry's Main Directorate of Intelligence, Kiryl Budanov, said this.

According to him, the implementation of the exchange was complicated.

Theexchange was prepared for quite a long time. The United Arab Emirates took part in the organisation of this process. With their help, we managed to do it together," Budanov said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that the negotiations had not stopped during the long pause in prisoner exchanges.

There was a long pause in the exchanges, but there was no pause in the negotiations on the exchanges. We are using every opportunity, trying all mediation options," Zelenskyy said.

He added that the topic of releasing Ukrainians from Russian captivity was raised at every international meeting. Work on the return of all Ukrainian citizens continues.

Now I am glad that it was possible to unblock the exchange. Both soldiers of the Armed Forces and the National Guard have been returned home. Border guards, Navy soldiers. Most of them are soldiers and sergeants. But also officers. A really good day for Ukraine. Some of our soldiers are the defenders of Mariupol and Azovstal," the president added.

We shall remind you that today 230 people, of whom six were civilians, were returned from Russian captivity. Among the servicemen managed to return representatives of:

• Armed Forces of Ukraine - 130 (among them TrO - 14, Navy - 14);
• National Guard - 55;
• State Border Guard Service - 38;
• National Police - 1.

At the same time, some (48) of the captured servicemen were persons who were considered missing and had the status of "identity search".

This was the 49th prisoner exchange since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The last prisoner exchange took place in August 2023 - then 22 Ukrainian servicemen were returned.

A total of 2,828 defenders have been returned to Ukraine since the start of the invasion.