AGENCIES

Russia and Ukraine yesterday swapped 193 captured soldiers each, the second exchange this month in one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv.

The two countries have exchanged thousands of POWs throughout the four-year war -- with the swaps often the only result of otherwise stalled talks on ending the conflict.

“193 Ukrainian warriors are returning home as part of a prisoner exchange,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.

“We remember each and every one and continue working every day to bring our people home from Russian captivity.”

AFP journalists at the scene of the swap in northern Ukraine saw dozens of exchanged Ukrainians pour off buses looking pale but relieved after long stints in Russian detention.

They wrapped themselves in blue and yellow flags, embraced each other, or cried on the phone to loved ones.

One of the servicemen, who identified himself to AFP only as Vadym, said that after three-and-a-half years in Russian detention he had one immediate wish.

“I want to see my son, who was born while I was in captivity,” he said.

Another released serviceman, Ruslan Osaulyak, said he hoped his parents were still alive after more than three years he was in captivity.

“What do I wish for? A peaceful sky over us, and to drive all of them out of here as soon as possible. Every man must defend his homeland, and his family,” he told AFP.

A representative of Kyiv’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War told AFP that most of the released military personnel had been held in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, and that many months of negotiations were needed to secure their release.

The official, Petro Yatsenko, said that two of the exchanged Ukrainian prisoners were celebrating their birthdays on Friday.

The youngest in the group of freed Ukrainians was 24 and the eldest was 60, he added.

The Russian defence ministry also confirmed the swap had taken place, adding that its troops were undergoing medical checks in Belarus, a Moscow-allied country bordering Ukraine.

“The United Arab Emirates and the United States provided humanitarian mediation efforts to facilitate the return of the Russian servicemen from captivity,” Russia said.

US-led talks aimed at ending the four-year conflict were already stalled before the war in the Middle East effectively put them on ice.