Europe 1 with AFP // Credits: Maxym Marusenko / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP 18:20 p.m., January 03, 2024

As hostilities escalate between Russia and Ukraine, the two countries have exchanged more than 230 prisoners of war. This 49th exchange between the two countries since the start of the war in February 2022 is the largest in terms of repatriated Ukrainians.

Russia and Ukraine announced on Wednesday that they had exchanged more than 230 prisoners of war, a first officially in several months, amid an escalation of strikes by the two countries. "After a complex negotiation process, 248 Russian servicemen have been repatriated from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Telegram. "More than 200 of our soldiers and civilians have returned from captivity to the Russians," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced.

According to Ukraine's Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, exactly 230 Ukrainian servicemen were exchanged in this "49th exchange" between Kyiv and Moscow since the start of the Russian assault in February 2022. It is "the largest in terms of the number of (Ukrainian) defenders repatriated," the Ukrainian Prisoner of War Coordination Center said. In total since February 24, 2022, "2,828 (Ukrainian) defenders have returned home!" Loubinets said on Wednesday. According to Ukrainian media, the previous exchange of prisoners of war was last August.

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The announcement on Wednesday comes amid escalating violence between Russians and Ukrainians in recent days, with strikes on both sides killing and wounding dozens of civilians. According to Kiev and Moscow, the exchange was made possible by mediation by the United Arab Emirates, an important partner of Russia in several humanitarian, economic and energy issues. At the end of November, Dmytro Loubinets accused Russia of blocking any exchange of prisoners of war. "The exchanges are not taking place because Russia does not want them," he said.

Last August, the commissioner for human rights said that Ukraine had managed to recover nearly 2,600 of its citizens taken prisoner since the start of the Russian offensive. There would still be thousands of POWs on both sides. In recent months, Moscow has stepped up trials to impose harsh sentences on Ukrainian prisoners of war.