Hundreds of Ukrainian and Russian POWs head home after swap
There was no immediate explanation for why more Ukrainians than Russians were listed as released
Ukraine and Russia carried out a new exchange of prisoners of war on Monday, with the two sides bringing home a combined total of more than 300 former captives.
Kyiv brought home 189 former captives, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia's Defence Ministry said, while the Russian ministry said 150 Russian servicemen were returning home.
The Russian ministry said the captives had been released in Belarus, Moscow's close ally in the 34-month-old war with Ukraine, and would be transferred to Russia.
Reuters Television footage in Ukraine showed waiting spouses and some servicemen, many wrapped in blue and yellow national flags, weeping openly as they were reunited well after dark outside a building.
A child's incredulous voice resounded over a mobile telephone: "Dad, is that you?"
"My son is five years old now, the last time I saw him he was two years old," said Serhii, who was captured by Russian forces at the Azovstal steel mill in the southern port Mariupol, which withstood a siege for nearly three months in 2022.
"That's why my son probably didn't recognize me. I used to have a beard and hair. I lost 20 kg."
For some former captives, the return to freedom involved adjustment.
"Even now I'm holding my hands behind my back, it has become a habit of mine," said Roman Borshch, 29. "Now I have to get used to being a free person again."
Video posted by the Russian Defence Ministry showed smiling servicemen on a bus, some calling their families.
"We'll soon be home. How are the children? How is our boy?" said one man.
"I am overwhelmed by emotion," said another. "I still can't quite believe that this has happened, that I am back home, that the ministry made such efforts, that we are remembered and valued."
Zelenskyy thanked the United Arab Emirates and other partners for facilitating the swap. The United Arab Emirates acknowledged it had helped arrange the exchange.
"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," Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.
There was no immediate explanation for why more Ukrainians than Russians were listed as released; the freed Ukrainians included civilians who had been in Russian captivity.
Zelenskyy said the returning Ukrainians included soldiers, sergeants and officers from different frontline areas, as well as two civilians who had been captured in the southern port of Mariupol.
Besieged steel mill
Denys Prokopenko, commander of the 12th Special Forces "Azov" Brigade that defended the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol before it was captured by Russian forces, said 11 of his men were among those returning. Prokopenko had been brought home in an earlier swap.
The Ukrainian body overseeing Ukrainian swaps said it was the 59th exchange between the two sides since Russia's February 2022 invasion. That brought to 3,956 the number of Ukrainian detainees returned home.
It said those brought home this year included Ukrainian nationals serving what it described as "so-called sentences" imposed by Russian courts for various offences.
In the last swap in October, also carried out with assistance from the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Ukraine each brought home 95 detainees.
U.S. announces additional aid to Ukraine
The prisoner exchange came as the United States on Monday announced nearly $6 billion US in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine as President Joe Biden uses his final weeks in office to surge aid to Kyiv before president-elect Donald Trump takes power.
Biden announced $2.5 billion US in additional security assistance for Ukraine.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the United States has made available $3.4 billion US in additional budget aid to Ukraine, giving the war-torn country critical resources amid intensifying Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.
"At my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine's position in this war over the remainder of my time in office," Biden said in a statement.
Biden's announcement includes $1.25 billion US in military aid drawn from U.S. stockpiles and a $1.22 billion US Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package, the final USAI package of Biden's time in office.
Biden said the new assistance will provide Ukraine with "an immediate influx of capabilities that it continues to use to great effect on the battlefield and longer-term supplies of air defence, artillery, and other critical weapons systems."
Nearly three years into the war, Washington has committed billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, but it is uncertain if the aid will continue at that pace under Trump, who succeeds Biden on Jan. 20.