Russia says 63 Russian troopers have been launched whereas Ukrainian authorities say 116 of their servicemen have been freed, amid continued combating within the east.
Ukraine has launched dozens of Russian troopers as a part of a negotiation brokered by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia’s defence ministry has stated, the identical day 116 Ukrainian servicemen have been additionally freed as combating rages within the jap metropolis of Bakhmut.
“A complicated negotiations process resulted in 63 Russian servicemen returned from the Ukrainian territory”, the ministry stated on Saturday, as quoted by TASS information company. It added that individuals of a “sensitive category” have been additionally included within the deal, due to the mediation of the Gulf nation.
The ministry didn’t present particulars on who falls inside the “sensitive” group, however specialists say that in previous exchanges it referred to a variety of individuals, together with spies and civilians holding delicate data.
All the launched troopers are at the moment in Russia, the ministry stated, including that they have been being given medical help and entry to contact their households.
The UAE maintains shut ties with Moscow and stays one of many nations not supporting Western sanctions in opposition to Russia.
Final October, President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Saint Petersburg the place the Russian chief described relations between the 2 nations as “an important factor of stability”.
Whereas the Russian ministry didn’t seek advice from the occasion as a prisoner change in its feedback on Saturday, later the identical day Ukraine’s presidency confirmed the discharge of 116 Ukrainians, together with fighters caught within the battle of Mariupol and Kherson.
The Coordination Headquarters for the Remedy of Prisoners of Conflict posted a message on its Telegram channel saying that the liberation got here as a part of an operation that happened “in several stages”.
A majority of 87 of these freed have been from the Ukrainian common arm forces. Eight servicemen have been from navy intelligence whereas others belonged to the navy and the nationwide guards. Not less than 23 of the launched have been injured or sick, the Ukrainian workplace stated, including that some have misplaced limbs on account of frostbite.
The Coordination Headquarters additionally stated that the repatriation of the our bodies of British volunteers, Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Perry, happened as a part of the operation.
Prisoners’ exchanges between the 2 nations have turn into extra common in latest months. In a shock transfer in September, greater than 300 soldiers were swapped, marking the biggest change since Moscow’s invasion final February. Two extra happened in December and the newest in January noticed Ukraine and Russia liberating not less than 50 prisoners every.
“This marks a successful exchange, a dialogue,” stated Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi. “As much as the two countries continue to build walls between them during the war, it is exchanges like these that show that there are cracks on the wall and that there is enough daylight to continue to swap prisoners and bodies,” Basravi stated, reporting from Kyiv.
The discharge of prisoners on either side comes as intense combating continues round Bakhmut within the jap Donetsk area.
Moscow says Russian forces are encircling town from a number of instructions and battling to take management of a highway that can also be an vital provide route for Ukrainian forces.
In a defiant touch upon Friday night time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that no one will surrender Bakhmut. “We will fight as long as we can,” he stated, standing shoulder to shoulder with European Council President Charles Michel, who was on his second go to to Kyiv in lower than three weeks, and European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen.
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