Russia and Ukraine have released 90 Prisoners of War (PoWs) each in the latest tranche of a regular swap in the 28-month old conflict. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the intermediary for the current prisoner swap. The last such exchange took place on May 31. Each side had then repatriated 75 PoWs in that exchange after a four month gap, then too UAE had acted as a go between the two sides. The Russians say PoWs in Ukrainian captivity were facing danger.
Ukraine said returnees had included soldiers who had defended the Azovstal steel mill in a three-month siege in 2022 and others taken prisoner when Russian forces briefly seized the defunct Chornobyl nuclear power station. The UAE said its action as a go-between had been made possible by maintaining good contacts with both sides.
The Russian Defence Ministry stated “As a result of negotiations, 90 Russian prisoners of war who risked death in captivity are being returned from areas under Kyiv’s control.” It said the Russian prisoners were able to return home “with the United Arab Emirates participating as an intermediary in a humanitarian capacity.” The freed Russian prisoners were being flown to Moscow, where they would undergo medical checks, the ministry said.
Even as Ukrainian shelling destroyed a radiation control post in Velyka Znamyanka in the Zaporizhzhia region, Russia’s management of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine said on Wednesday. “(Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant) specialists carried out a number of compensatory measures to control the radiation situation in the area,” the management stated on a social media platform. Radiation levels, the management added, do not exceed safe levels. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Russia seized the Zaporizhzhia plant early on in the conflict. Both sides have been accusing each other of endangering the nuclear power plant, that could potentially cause a serious nuclear accident which may affect the entire region.
(With inputs from Reuters)
