Volkswacht Bodensee - Ukraine, Russia free 200 POWs each

The two sides agreed to the exchange during talks in Geneva last month, both sides said. Prisoner swaps are one of the few areas of cooperation between the warring countries.

"Today, 200 Ukrainian families received the most-awaited message -- their loved ones are coming home," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.

Video shared by Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets showed servicemen leaving buses, wrapped in Ukrainian flags and shouting "Glory to Ukraine!", as well as embracing those who came to welcome them.

Among those freed were Ukrainian soldiers captured in 2022, including some who fought in the three-month-long Russian siege of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, said Lubinets.

At the site of the exchange in the northern Chernigiv region, Kateryna Movchan, 29, waited for news of her uncle, Valentyn, who went missing on the front in 2024.

"We're hoping that maybe someone will recognise him and there will be at least some kind of feedback," Movchan, from the northwestern Rivne region, told AFP.

"We have absolutely no information at all: how he is, where he is," she added.

The Russian defence ministry published footage showing its soldiers boarding a bus and cheering while draped in Russian flags.

The United Arab Emirates and the United States helped mediate Thursday's exchange, Russia said.

More prisoners will be released on Friday, with the two sides set to exchange 500 each in total, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on Telegram.

There have been several prisoner exchanges during the war. The swaps are among the few tangible results of talks between the two sides, mediated by Washington as it seeks to broker a deal to end the war.

Negotiations appear to have stalled, with the United States now focusing its attention on the Middle East.

Kyiv had said there was a tentative plan to hold talks in Abu Dhabi this week -- one of the places being hit by Iranian missiles and drones.

Zelensky on Monday suggested holding the next meeting in Switzerland or Turkey, which both have hosted previous talks, instead.

H.Weber--VB