Kiev and Moscow complete first exchange of prisoners of war with Russians captured at Kursk | International

One of the objectives of the Ukrainian invasion of Russian territory has already been accomplished. On August 6, a few days after the offensive on the Russian province of Kursk began, the Kiev government announced that it would reactivate negotiations with Moscow to take advantage of hundreds of Russian recruits whom Ukrainian troops were capturing in the operation. Two weeks later, this Saturday an exchange of 115 prisoners of war took place for each side. In the case of the Russians, they are all soldiers who were captured in Kursk.

This is the 55th swap of prisoners of war carried out by Ukraine and Russia since the start of the invasion in 2022, and the seventh this year thanks to the mediation of the United Arab Emirates. Ukrainian authorities have indicated that in total more than 3,500 Ukrainian fighters have been able to return to their homes. The Kremlin, for its part, does not provide information on how many of its people have been released. In this Saturday’s case, the Ukrainian beneficiaries are, for the most part, soldiers who had been in Russian captivity for more than two years, 82 soldiers who were detained in the battle for Mariupol in 2022, as indicated by the Ukrainian ombudsman, Dmytro Lubynets. The others who have been freed were captured during the siege of Kiev.

The videos of Ukrainian prisoners that were made public made an impact due to the symptoms of hunger from which they suffered, an image that contrasted with the Russians in better condition, although it must also be taken into account that they have spent only a few weeks in captivity. Unlike Ukraine, Russia has increasingly restricted Red Cross inspections of its prisons for war combatants. The Russian Defense Ministry has reported that its troops are in Belarus, which suggests that a prisoner exchange has taken place on the border between Ukraine and this country allied to Russia.

Kiev hopes that new exchanges will take place in the coming weeks thanks to the hundreds of Russian soldiers captured in the Kursk raid. The Ukrainian military analysis institute, the Center for Strategic Studies, estimated last week that the Ukrainian armed forces had captured more than 2,000 prisoners. A medical team from the 82nd Ukrainian Assault Brigade told this newspaper on August 15 that there were at least 1,000 Russian prisoners from Kursk. Most of the Russian soldiers in the attacked province are recruits with little military experience, unlike the Ukrainian units involved.

News of this exchange has been taken with special emotion in Ukraine as Independence Day is celebrated this Saturday. Unlike the past two years, the Ukrainian government has refrained this Saturday from setting up Russian armored vehicles destroyed during the war in the center of Kiev for citizens to visit. “We miss each of you, we are doing the best to bring everyone back,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in reference to the soldiers still in captivity. Zelensky and his right-hand man, Andriy Yermak, have reiterated that it is essential that Ukrainian troops continue to work with the mission of taking as many prisoners as possible.

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