Emirates' efforts have facilitated eleven successful prisoner exchanges between the two warring nations
Ukrainian prisoners of war are seen after a swap. Photo: Reuters
The UAE has brokered a new exchange of war captives between Russia and Ukraine, which included 50 captives, 25 Ukrainian captives and 25 Russian captives, bringing the overall number exchanged through the UAE mediation efforts to 2,583.
"These are our military and civilians," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on X. Zelenskiy thanked the UAE, which has brokered similar swaps before, for its assistance "in making today's event possible."
Ukraine's coordination centre for POW affairs said the youngest freed prisoner was 24, while the oldest was 60.
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) expressed its appreciation to Russia and Ukraine for their cooperation with the UAE's mediation endeavours and their role in the successful captives exchange. This reflects the appreciation of both countries for the UAE's role in supporting all diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis between the two nations.
UAE's foreign ministry emphasised that the success of this new mediation, the eleventh since the beginning of last year, reflects the trust of the two countries in the UAE.
Furthermore, the Ministry reaffirmed the UAE's commitment to ensuring the success of all efforts aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine, and mitigating the humanitarian impacts as a result of the crisis, including on refugees and captives.
The UAE's efforts have succeeded in completing eleven exchanges of war captives between Russia and Ukraine, in addition to a successful exchange of two prisoners between the US and Russia in December 2022.
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