Russia and Ukraine exchanged 230 prisoners of war, including Russian conscripts

Russia and Ukraine announced on Saturday, August 24, that they had carried out an exchange of 230 prisoners of war from both sides, which involves Russian conscripts captured during the Ukrainian offensive in the border region of Kursk. “As a result of the negotiation process, 115 Russian servicemen captured in the Kursk region were returned from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime. In return, 115 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian armed forces were handed over,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The released Russian servicemen are currently in Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, he added. “Today, another 115 of our defenders returned home. These are soldiers of the National Guard, the Armed Forces, the Navy and the National Border Guard Service,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed this.

This exchange was carried out, like many previous ones, under the mediation of the United Arab Emirates, which welcomed being “a reliable mediator supporting diplomacy to resolve the crisis between the two countries.” The Emirati Foreign Ministry promised in a statement that “continue all efforts and initiatives aimed at finding a peaceful solution”, seeing in the “de-escalation” THE “only way to resolve the conflict.”

The surprise Ukrainian offensive launched on August 6 in the Russian border region of Kursk had caught Moscow off guard and kyiv had boasted of having taken prisoner “hundreds” Russian soldiers. According to Russian media, these prisoners are mostly conscripts and border guards. Russian conscripts do not fight in Ukraine, but perform their one-year compulsory military service on the national territory and generally have no real military experience.