Russia and Ukraine on February 8 exchanged 100 prisoners of war each after mediation efforts by the United Arab Emirates.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the exchange was conducted under a "100-to-100" formula and mentioned the U.A.E.'s "humanitarian mediation." The ministry said on Telegram that the returning soldiers would undergo medical examinations in Moscow.
A Defense Ministry video posted on Telegram showed soldiers boarding a bus and chatting with each other and making calls on cell phones.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also released details of the exchange on Telegram.
"Another 100 Ukrainians are at home in Ukraine," Zelenskiy said and posted photographs of men wrapped in Ukrainian flags.
Zelenskiy described the returning POWs as members of the National Guard, the border guard service, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“The majority are defenders of Mariupol,” Zelenskiy added, referring to the port city captured by Russian forces in May 2022 after a three-month siege.
"We always remember our people in captivity, everyone. We need to get everyone back. We are working on that every day," Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine's coordinating committee on POWs said 28 of the returning soldiers were injured or ill. It said 84 had taken part in the defense of Mariupol. Others among them served in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions where some of the heaviest fighting has taken place.
The last exchange took place on January 31 and was one of the largest since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago. It involved 195 Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel who were swapped for 195 Russian military personnel, according to Russian authorities. Zelenskiy said the exchange involved 207 people returned to Ukraine.
The January 31 exchange was the first after the crash of an Il-76 military transport plane in the Belgorod region on January 24. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, there were 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war on board the plane and all died. Russian officials said the plane was shot down by Ukraine.
Ukrainian military intelligence said last week that it has repeatedly asked Moscow to return the bodies of the POWs who Russia said died in the crash. Andriy Yusov, spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, said the calls have gone unanswered.
Kyiv has not confirmed Russia’s claim that its forces shot down the plane but confirmed that a prisoner exchange was being prepared. Ukrainian authorities have called for an international investigation into the crash.