Russia and Ukraine are set to exchange 90 prisoners of war in a deal facilitated by the United Arab Emirates, Bloomberg reports.
The Ukraine parliament’s commissioner for human rights Dmytro Lubinets had been reported in local media last week saying the government, with the help of the UAE, was planning “a big” prisoner exchange with Russia soon.
Russia and Ukraine have conducted a few prisoner swaps in the 27-month-old war that started when Russia invaded its smaller neighbour.
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In the last exchange, which occurred in June and was also facilitated by the UAE, Russia and Ukraine each handed back 90 prisoners.
Earlier the chief of Russia’s general staff, Valery Gerasimov, thanked Russian forces for capturing the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s Defence Ministry said.
Ukraine has offered no official comment on who controls the village, which was seized by Russian forces at the outset of the February 2022 invasion and recaptured by Ukraine in 2023.
Russian forces have captured a string of villages since seizing the strategic city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region in February. The region is the focal point of Russia’s slow advance through eastern Ukraine along the 1000km front.
The Russian Defence Ministry first announced the capture of Urozhaine on Sunday and its latest account said Gerasimov had heard a report from a commander of the “east” group of forces.
“Summing up the report, the chief of staff noted the success of the ‘east’ group in liberating the locality of Urozhaine and set new tasks for further activity,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Meanwhile the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, announced a $US100 million ($A148 million) aid package to help Ukraine prepare for winter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said.
“We appreciate today’s announcement of a new UNHCR assistance package … to prepare Ukraine for the winter. Considering the constant shelling of energy facilities, this is very important assistance,” Zelenskiy said in a statement.
He added that Ukraine needed additional support to restore destroyed housing and arrange shelters in schools and hospitals so that Ukrainians could return home.
The UNHCR estimates about 6.5 million people have fled abroad from Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2022.
About 3.5 million others have been displaced from their homes by the fighting and have found refuge in other parts of Ukraine.
– With Deutsche Presse-Agentur
