Russia and Ukraine exchanged 270 people each Friday, Oct. 23, in a UAE-mediated prisoner swap, while a separate family-reunification effort returned 14 people across the two countries.
The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine said 261 of its 270 returnees were service members and nine were civilians. It said most had been held in Russian captivity since 2022. The Russian Defense Ministry said its returning servicemen were in Belarus and had access to psychological and medical support before being transferred to Russia.
The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it mediated the exchange, its 27th. The ministry said UAE-mediated exchanges had returned 8,537 captives in total.
Separately, Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said seven Ukrainians returned to Ukraine and seven people traveled to Russia in a family-reunification effort supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
