KYIV, March 6 (Reuters) - Ukraine and Russia exchanged 300 service personnel each on Friday in the second day of a two‑day prisoner swap, with some of those released having been held since 2022 in the war.
It is the second POW exchange so far this year and follows the recent round of the U.S.-brokered peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. Kyiv and Moscow exchanged 200 prisoners of war each on Thursday, on the first day of the swaps.
"They defended Ukraine in various sectors – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv,
Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and in Mariupol," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app, commenting on the second day of the swap.
"Most of them had been in captivity for more than a year, some since 2022."
Zelenskiy said that two Ukrainian civilians were also returned home on Friday.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that the United States and the United Arab Emirates acted as mediators in the exchange.
Zelenskiy posted a video of dozens of men exiting big white buses, smiling, waving, and thanking the Ukrainian border guards who greeted them.
"I am alive and healthy. It is all good. I do not have teeth," said one serviceman talking to his mobile phone on a loudspeaker.
The previous POW swap was in early February after peace talks in Abu Dhabi earlier that month.
Ukraine hoped for a new round of talks on how to end the war at the start of March, but they were postponed after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, prompting Tehran to fire missiles toward Israel and several Gulf locations hosting U.S. military facilities in retaliation.
Zelenskiy said earlier this week that Kyiv was waiting for a new date for the talks from the United States.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Olena Harmash; Editing by Louise Heavens)
