Ukraine and Russia have exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates – in what has been described as the biggest swap of the conflict.
Kiev confirmed that 230 Ukrainians had been returned home, while the Russian Defense Ministry said 248 Russian soldiers had been released from captivity.
President Zelensky celebrated the return of “warriors and civilians” and said some of the released soldiers had fought in Russia's brutal siege of Mariupol in the early months of the war.
“Our people are home,” he wrote on X, adding: “I thank everyone who, despite all the difficulties, brings our people home. I am grateful to our defenders. We are doing everything we can to return all our people who are still in Russian captivity.”
Photos show dozens of men, wrapped in Ukrainian flags, being transported home from captivity. There were scenes of jubilation as they set foot on Ukrainian soil again, often for the first time in months.
Photos show dozens of men wrapped in Ukrainian flags after returning to their country
Ukrainian prisoners of war were transported home by bus after their liberation
Ukrainian men hugged each other after being released by Russia in a major prisoner swap on January 3
Ukraine said last month it had freed some 2,598 people from Russian captivity in 48 barter transactions
The exchange followed other similar deals earlier in the war, but the process had slowed in recent months, with Zelensky saying in December that Russia's own “very specific reasons” were to blame.
Ukraine said last month it had freed some 2,598 people from Russian captivity in 48 swap operations since the start of the full-scale war in February 2022.
As the war approaches its two-year milestone, the battle between the two sides rumbles on, with Putin vowing in his New Year's speech that Russia will “never withdraw” from Ukraine.
Russia's military, meanwhile, said it had shot down 12 Ukrainian missiles over Russia's southern Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, as Kiev's forces seek to embarrass President Vladimir Putin and puncture his argument that life in Russia despite the 22-month war continues normally.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the situation in the regional capital, also called Belgorod, “remains tense.”
The city was hit by two shellings on Wednesday, he wrote on Telegram.
“Air defense systems were working,” he said, promising more details on possible damage after inspecting the area later in the day. Wednesday is a national holiday in Russia.
Smiling Ukrainian men pose for a photo after being sent home in a major prisoner swap
Ukrainian POWs call their loved ones after being released by Russia
The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine fired two Tochka-U missiles and seven rockets into the region late on Tuesday, then launched six Tochka-U missiles and six Vilkha missiles on Wednesday morning.
The Soviet-built Tochka-U tactical missile system has a range of up to 120 kilometers. It has a huge warhead that can carry cluster munitions. Ukraine has received some cluster munitions from the US, but Tochka-U and Vilkha can use their own cluster munitions.
President Zelensky celebrated the return of 'warriors and civilians'. Pictured last month in his end-of-year speech
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets soldiers injured in Ukraine during a visit to the Central Vishnevsky Military Clinic in Moscow on January 1, 2024
The Russian side of the border with Ukraine has been regularly attacked in recent days.
During the war, Russian border villages have been sporadically targeted by Ukrainian artillery fire, rockets, mortars and drones launched from dense forests, where they are difficult to detect.
Lately, as rockets and drones have fallen on Ukrainian cities, Kiev's forces have focused on the regional capital Belgorod, which is about 100 kilometers north of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city.
Belgorod, with about 340,000 inhabitants, is the largest Russian city close to the Ukrainian border. It can be accomplished with relatively simple and movable weapons, such as multiple rocket launchers.
More than twenty people were killed in shelling in Belgorod on Saturday.
Local residents throw furniture out of the window of a destroyed high-rise building after a Russian missile attack in central Kiev, January 3, 2024
Utility workers repair water pipes outside a high-rise building destroyed by a Russian missile attack in central Kiev on January 3, 2024
The attack was one of the deadliest on Russian soil since the large-scale invasion of Moscow.
Russian officials said the death toll reached 26 on Tuesday, including five children, after another salvo of rockets.
Hitting Belgorod and disrupting city life is a dramatic way for Ukraine to show it can strike back against Russia, which militarily outnumbers Kiev's forces.
On Monday, Putin lashed out at the Belgorod attacks.
“They want to intimidate us and create uncertainty in our country,” he said, vowing to step up retaliation.
The Russian government has tried to counter the successful attacks by describing the Ukrainians as “terrorists” who indiscriminately target residential areas, while insisting that the Russian military only targets depots, weapons factories and other military facilities.
Ukrainian officials never acknowledge responsibility for attacks on Russian territory.