The swap, first in four months, included an equal number of Russians and Ukrainians. Moscow released 157 Ukrainians, seven of whom are civilians, while Kyiv freed 157 Russians
Russia and Ukraine have conducted a prisoner of war and civilian exchange, days after trilateral talks with the US ended inconclusively in Abu Dhabi.
The swap, first in four months, included an equal number of Russians and Ukrainians. Moscow released 157 Ukrainians, seven of whom are civilians, while Kyiv freed 157 Russians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that the latest PoW exchange happened after a “long pause”. The last time such a swap happened was in October 2025.
“We are returning our people home – 157 Ukrainians. Soldiers of the Armed Forces, National Guard, State Border Service. And civilians are also returning with the defenders. Most have been in captivity since 2012,” the Ukrainian president said, pledging to bring back every single Ukrainian still in Russian captivity.
A
first day of talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States aimed at brokering an end to the war in Ukraine concluded Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, with Kyiv describing negotiations as “substantive and productive”.
While there was no apparent breakthrough in the most recent round of discussions, meetings were set to carry on into a second day, Kyiv said.
Wednesday’s talks came following weeks of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure, which have left Kyiv residents in darkness and cold, with temperatures dropping as low as -20C.
Just hours before the Abu Dhabi talks commenced, Russia unleashed a massive attack on Ukraine, targeting its energy infrastructure. The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia launched
71 missiles and 450 drones on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.
Out of the Russian arsenal, 38 missiles and 412 drones were shot down or suppressed by Ukrainian forces. The attack was the biggest reported by the Ukrainian army so far this year and has crippled the country’s energy grid.
Despite the Kremlin repeating its hardline demands ahead of the talks, Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov said the first day had been “substantive and productive, focused on concrete steps and practical solutions”.
End of Article
