Russia And Ukraine Set Each Other On 115 Brawls

115 prisoners of the Russian and Ukrainian War (Reutters)

JAKARTA - Russia and Ukraine finally agreed to exchange 115 prisoners of war from each side on Saturday, August 24. The first exchange came after it was properly initiated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian soldiers exchanged were arrested in the Kursk area. All Russian soldiers released are now in Belarus and will receive medical treatment and rehabilitation after they return to Russia.

"This is the first exchange since Ukraine launched a surprise attack on Russian Kursk territory on August 6, the biggest attack on Russian territory by foreign powers since the Second World War," a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

The ministry expressed its gratitude for the role of the UAE in facilitating the prisoner swap.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted a photo of Ukrainian war prisoners wrapped in the country's blue and yellow flags and hugging each other. He said that those returned were soldiers from border guards, national guards, the navy, and the armed forces.

Zelenskiy thanked Ukrainian troops helping to replenish the prisoners for the Kyiv exchange saying they had formed a buffer zone in the region Russia uses, which sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine in February 2022, to strike targets in Ukraine.

According to Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's commissioner for human rights, 82 Ukrainians who were repatriated will defend Mariupol port by 2022.

Confirming his role in facilitating the exchange, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the total number of prisoners exchanged through its mediation efforts now stands at 1,788.