ABU DHABI, UAE / MENA Newswire / — Russia and Ukraine exchanged 205 prisoners of war each on Friday in the latest swap credited to mediation by the United Arab Emirates, bringing the total number of captives released in the operation to 410. The exchange marked the newest confirmed case in which the UAE was identified as a facilitator between the two sides, extending a diplomatic track that has remained active even as the war has entered its fifth year and broader fighting has continued.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said 205 Russian servicemen had been returned from territory controlled by Ukraine and were taken to Belarus, where they were receiving medical and psychological assistance. Ukraine separately confirmed that 205 of its service personnel had been brought home from Russian captivity. Officials in Kyiv and Moscow did not immediately publish full lists of the returned prisoners, and both sides kept the location of the exchange undisclosed in line with past practice for swaps of this kind.
The exchange also came after Russia and Ukraine agreed earlier this month to a larger arrangement covering 1,000 prisoners from each side. Friday’s release was described by Ukraine as the first stage of that broader process, while Moscow linked the operation to the same agreement. The latest transfer kept prisoner exchanges among the few verified channels of direct coordination still taking place between the two countries, even as military operations and cross border attacks have continued on multiple fronts.
Exchange record grows
The United Arab Emirates has played a recurring role in prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly presented those efforts as part of the country’s humanitarian diplomacy. In its most recent official update before Friday’s swap, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said a UAE-mediated exchange on April 24 secured the release of 193 captives from each side, bringing the cumulative number freed through UAE mediation efforts at that point to 6,691 across 22 exchanges.
Friday’s operation followed a series of earlier swaps this year that underscored the regularity of the process. In April, the UAE announced another exchange involving 350 captives, while March saw two consecutive operations that together released 1,000 people. Those figures reflected a sustained pattern in which both Russia and Ukraine continued to use mediated exchanges to return military personnel and, in some cases, other detainees, even when wider diplomatic contacts remained limited and battlefield conditions shifted rapidly.
Humanitarian channel remains active
For Moscow, the latest returnees were transferred to Belarus before onward movement for treatment and support, according to the Russian Defence Ministry. For Kyiv, the exchange added another group of service members to a long list of Ukrainians brought back through negotiated releases since the start of the full scale war. Ukrainian authorities described the return as part of a continued effort to recover all prisoners held by Russia, while withholding operational details surrounding the handover itself.
Russia and Ukraine have conducted numerous prisoner exchanges over the course of the conflict, turning them into one of the most consistent humanitarian mechanisms still functioning between the two sides. The latest 410 person swap kept that mechanism in motion and placed the United Arab Emirates once again at the center of a high profile mediation effort. With both governments confirming the release of 205 prisoners each, Friday’s exchange stood as the newest verified development in a long running series of negotiated returns.