Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Russian Defense Ministry have confirmed the exchange.
ADVERTISEMENTRussia and Ukraine have swapped 95 prisoners of war each, in their latest exchange deal.
According to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for POWs, some of those who were released on Wednesday had spent more than two years in captivity. They were captured in Mariupol, during Russia’s early offensive in the Kyiv region.
It also confirmed that just over 3,400 people, both civilians and military, have returned from Russian captivity since the outbreak of the war.
Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging service that the United Arab Emirates had again brokered the agreements. The UAE has said it maintains friendly relations with both Moscow and Kyiv.
Zelenskyy posted photos of mostly gaunt servicemen with shaven heads and wrapped in Ukrainian flags standing in what appeared to be an open area of countryside.
“No matter how difficult it may be, we are looking for everyone who may be in captivity. We have to return everyone,” he wrote.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the freed Russian soldiers will be flown to Moscow for medical treatment and rehabilitation.
The prisoner swap was the 54th since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine back in February 2022.
Officials from the warring countries meet only when they swap the dead and POWs, after lengthy preparation and diplomacy.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia are disclosing how many prisoners are being held in total.