Russia and Ukraine conducted a major exchange of prisoners on Wednesday, 190 in all, in their third such swap over the past seven weeks, following negotiations mediated by the United Arab Emirates.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said all 95 Ukrainians who were freed were from the military, and thanked the UAE for its help.

Russia’s defence ministry, in a statement on Telegram, said the returning soldiers would receive medical examinations and physical and psychological rehabilitation. It said the freed troops had faced “mortal danger” in Ukrainian captivity.

The prisoner exchange was the third over the past seven weeks, with the first announced at the end of May.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Russian Defense Ministry reported the exchange.

Kyiv has secured the return of 3,405 people from Russian captivity since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the Ukrainian Coordinating Committee on Dealing with Prisoners of War said.

It said seven officers and 88 soldiers and sergeants were freed, and most had been in captivity since 2022.

The committee posted a video showing Ukrainian troops boarding buses to be transported home and cheering. It showed one serviceman, wrapped in the blue and yellow national flag, saying into his mobile phone: “I still cannot believe that I am at home.”

Twenty-three people had taken part in the three-month defence of the Sea of Azov port of Mariupol, and were captured by Russian forces in May 2022, the committee said.

“Many returning Ukrainian soldiers suffer from consequences of their wounds and have chronic diseases that require long-term treatment,” the panel said on Telegram.

In the second exchange in June, Russia and Ukraine each handed back 90 prisoners.

Last January, Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in the biggest single release of captives.

SOURCE: AP AND REUTERS