Russia, Ukraine swap 230 POWs in UAE-brokered deal

Russia and Ukraine exchanged 115 prisoners of war from each side on Saturday after the United Arab Emirates acted as an intermediary.

It is the first such exchange since Ukraine launched a surprise attack into Russia's Kursk region on Aug. 6, the biggest attack inside Russian territory by a foreign power since World War Two.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian servicemen swapped were captured in the Kursk region.

All released Russian soldiers are now in Belarus and will receive medical treatment and rehabilitation upon their return to Russia.

The ministry expressed gratitude for the UAE's role in facilitating the prisoner swap.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted a picture with Ukrainian POWs wrapped in the country's blue and yellow flags and hugging each other. He said that the returned were servicemen from the border guards, the national guard, navy and the armed forces.

Zelenskiy expressed gratitude to the Ukrainian troops who helped replenish the pool of prisoners for exchange.

Kyiv has said it has carved out a buffer zone in an area that Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, has used to pound targets in Ukraine.

According to Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's commissioner for human rights, 82 of the returned Ukrainians defended the port of Mariupol in 2022.

Confirming its role in facilitating the exchange, the UAE foreign ministry said that the total number of captives exchanged through its mediation efforts now stood at 1,788.

It is the seventh such exchange the UAE has mediated since Russia invaded Ukraine. An Emirati official earlier told Reuters that Russia and Ukraine were to swap prisoners following mediation by the Gulf state.

Abu Dhabi, a close security partner of the United States, has maintained warm relations with Moscow throughout the war, frustrating some Western officials. It has also strengthened ties with Kyiv.

UAE officials say their ability to talk to a range of international actors means that they can effectively mediate between parties and promote cooperation and security.

Despite ongoing hostilities, Russia and Ukraine have managed to swap hundreds of prisoners throughout the two-and-half-year conflict -- often in deals brokered by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia or Turkey.

Map of areas controlled by Ukrainian and Russian forces in Ukraine, as of September 12, 1900 GMTAFP

Russian advances

The prisoner swap came as Russia pushed ahead in east Ukraine, where it claims to have captured a string of villages in recent weeks.

The Russian defence ministry said in a daily briefing it had "liberated" the village of Zhelanne Pershe, less than 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the key Ukrainian-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

Pokrovsk lies on the intersection of a key road that supplies Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern front and has long been a target for Moscow's army.

More than half of the city's 60,000 residents have fled since the invasion began in February 2022, with evacuations ramping up in recent weeks as Moscow's army closes in.

Ukraine had hoped its major cross-border incursion into the Kursk region last month would slow down Russia's advances in the east.

On Friday, Zelensky said Moscow had been slowed down somewhat but conceded the situation on the eastern front was "very difficult".

Russia meanwhile claimed this week to have clawed back a swath of territory in the Kursk region, as it mounted what appeared to be a counter-offensive.

Missile spat

Tensions between Russia and the West over the conflict reached dire levels this week over UK and US discussions about letting Ukraine use longer-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

The discussions came after a visit to Kyiv by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British counterpart David Lammy.

President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Thursday that green-lighting the use of the long- range weapons deep inside Russia would put the NATO military alliance "at war" with Moscow.

"This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict," Putin told a state television reporter.

"It would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia," he added.

Ukraine's spy chief says N. Korean military aid to Russia presents major battlefield problem

Ukraine's spy chief said on Saturday that Russia's increased production of guided bombs as well as artillery ammunition deliveries from North Korea present major problems for Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.

The head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency GUR, Kyrylo Budanov, said North Korean military aid to Russia presented the biggest concern compared to support provided by Moscow's other allies.

"They supply huge amounts of artillery ammunition, which is critical for Russia," he said, pointing to the ramp up in the battlefield hostilities following such deliveries.