Russia and Ukraine stage new prisoner exchange after UAE mediation

Russia and Ukraine Conduct New POW Exchange with UAE Mediation

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia and Ukraine exchanged 146 prisoners of war from each side on Sunday after mediation by the United Arab Emirates, the Russian defence ministry and the Ukrainian president said.

The Russian ministry said all of the freed Russians were in Belarus receiving psychological and medical assistance.

Ukraine also returned to Moscow eight Russian citizens, residents of the Kursk region, the ministry said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, writing on the Telegram messaging app, announced that the exchange had taken place, but gave no figures.

The president posted pictures of smiling returnees, saying most of them had been in captivity since 2022, when Russia invaded its smaller neighbour. He said a journalist taken prisoner a month after the invasion was among them.

Zelenskiy thanked the United Arab Emirates for its role in overseeing the swap.

"The exchanges are continuing. Perhaps that is possible because of our soldiers, who are increasing the exchange fund for Ukraine," the president wrote, referring to the capture of Russian servicemen.

The Ukrainian military issued a statement confirming that a total of 146 prisoners from each side had been swapped.

Vladimir Medinsky, who has led the Russian side in three rounds of talks on a settlement in Turkey since May, said Ukraine was being slow in returning civilians to Kursk, a Russian region where Kyiv's forces staged a mass incursion a year ago.

He said more than 20 residents were waiting to go home.

"Three months have passed and residents of Kursk region are not being returned, but are being exchanged in small groups for some people needed by Ukraine," he wrote on Telegram. "Russia is engaged in painful bargaining to get civilians returned."

(Reporting by ReutersEditing by David Goodman and Alistair Bell)