Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) react on a bus after a swap, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at an unknown location in Ukraine, in this handout picture released December 30, 2024. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via Telegram/via REUTERS
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine and Russia carried out a new exchange of prisoners of war on Monday, with Kyiv bringing home 189 former captives, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday.
Zelenskiy thanked the United Arab Emirates and other partners for facilitating the swap.
"The return of our people from Russian captivity is always very good news for each of us. And today is one of such days: our team managed to bring 189 Ukrainians home," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
The Russian Defence Ministry reported earlier on Monday the prisoner swap, saying each side had freed 150 prisoners of war. There was no immediate explanation of the discrepancy in the numbers reported.
Zelenskiy said the returning Ukrainians included soldiers, sergeants, and officers from different frontline areas and also two civilians who had been captured in the southern port of Mariupol taken by the Russian troops in 2022.
Pictures released by Zelenskiy showed dozens of men sitting in a bus, some of them wrapped in Ukraine's national blue and yellow flags.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Gareth Jones)
