Russia and Ukraine exchanged 115 prisoners of war from each side on Saturday after the United Arab Emirates acted as an intermediary, Reuters reports.
It is the first such exchange since Ukraine launched a surprise attack into Russia's Kursk region on Aug. 6, the biggest attack inside Russian territory by a foreign power since World War Two.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian servicemen swapped were captured in the Kursk region.
The ministry expressed gratitude for the UAE's role in facilitating the prisoner swap.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted a picture with Ukrainian POWs wrapped in the country's blue and yellow flags and hugging each other. He said that the returned were servicemen from the border guards, the national guard, navy and the armed forces.
Kyiv has said it has carved out a buffer zone in an area that Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, has used to pound targets in Ukraine.
