Source : BRICS NEWS
ABU DHABI, October 23, 2026 — Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 540 prisoners in a deal mediated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), BRICS News reported on X on Friday, in the latest humanitarian breakthrough in the long-running war.
The post, published at about 9.18pm Malaysia time and marked “JUST IN”, read: “Russia and Ukraine exchange 540 prisoners in deal mediated by the UAE.”
https://x.com/BRICSinfo/status/2113621122260324429
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Friday that its latest mediation efforts had succeeded in securing the exchange of 540 captives, with each side releasing 270, according to the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National. It was the 27th detainee exchange between the two countries carried out through UAE-led talks.
The ministry said the swap brought the total number of captives exchanged between Russia and Ukraine through Emirati mediation to 8,537. It thanked both countries for cooperating with the UAE as a trusted international mediator, and said the Emirates would continue to support initiatives aimed at a peaceful resolution of the war and at addressing its humanitarian impact on refugees and prisoners.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared photographs of the freed detainees. “National Guard members, including Azov warriors, border guards, warriors of the Territorial Defense Forces, the Navy, the Land Forces, the Airborne Assault Forces, and the State Special Transport Service, as well as nine civilians, are returning home. Most of them had been in captivity since 2022,” he wrote.
“We remember one and all and continue searching for everyone. I thank everyone who works to make these exchanges possible,” Zelensky added. Politico Europe reported that Ukraine said its returning group included 261 military personnel and nine civilians. Zelensky said most of those released had defended Mariupol, and that five of them had been believed killed in the attack on the Olenivka prison in July 2022.
The National said the two countries last exchanged captives in August, when 206 people were released. Prisoner exchanges have remained one of the few areas of regular cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Gulf states, including the UAE, playing a prominent role as go-betweens.
The exchange coincided with other diplomatic moves on the war this week. On the same day, the White House said US First Lady Melania Trump had helped secure a localised ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered and residents to be evacuated, a deal that both Russia and Ukraine confirmed.
Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed the exchange and said the 270 returned Russian prisoners were in Belarus, Politico Europe reported. Politico said Friday’s swap was the third stage of a process that began on August 19, under a prisoner exchange deal brokered by US President Donald Trump’s administration in May that is expected to involve 2,000 prisoners of war in total. Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War thanked both the United States and the UAE, and said those freed included Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old English teacher from Izium.
Source: BRICS News on X, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs via The National, and Politico Europe.
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