Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners on Wednesday in the largest prisoner release since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ukrainian authorities announced that 230 Ukrainian prisoners of war have returned home in the first exchange in about five months.
Russia's Ministry of Defense announced that 248 Russian military personnel have been released under an agreement sponsored by the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs attributed the success of the exchange to the “strong friendly relations between the UAE and the Russian Federation and the Republic of Ukraine, supported by continued calls at the highest levels.”
The UAE has maintained close economic ties with Moscow despite Western sanctions and pressure on Moscow after Russia launched an invasion in 2022.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Rubinets said this was the 49th prisoner exchange during the war.
Some Ukrainians had been detained since 2022. Some of them took part in the milestone battles for Snake Island in Ukraine and the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Russian officials did not provide any other details of the exchange.
Also on Wednesday, Russia sought to embarrass the Kremlin and defeat President Vladimir Putin's claims that life continues as normal despite the fighting, in the southern region bordering Ukraine. It was announced that 12 missiles fired at one of the missiles had been shot down.
The situation in the border city of Belgorod, which was shelled twice on Wednesday morning, “remains tense,” regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote in a Telegram article.
“The air defense systems worked,” he said, promising more details about possible damage after touring the area later in the day, part of Russia's New Year holiday week.
Ukraine fired two Pillar-U missiles and seven rockets into the region late Tuesday, followed by six Pillar-U missiles and six Vilka rockets on Wednesday, Russia's Ministry of Defense said. .
The Soviet-made Pillar-U missile system has a range of up to 75 miles and a warhead that can carry cluster munitions.
Although Ukraine receives some cluster bombs from the United States, Pillar U and Vilka can use their own cluster bombs.
Russia's frontier has come under increasingly frequent attacks in recent days.
During the war, border villages were sporadically targeted by Ukrainian military artillery, rockets, mortar shells and drones fired from the jungle, where they were difficult to detect.
As Russia fires missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities in recent days, Kiev's military has targeted Belgorod, the regional capital about 90 miles north of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv.
Belgorod has a population of approximately 340,000 people and is Russia's largest city near the border. It can be reached with relatively simple, mobile weapons such as multiple rocket launchers.
Saturday's shelling of Belgorod was one of the deadliest attacks on mainland Russia since Moscow's all-out invasion, killing 25 people, including five children. Another civilian was killed in a new volley on Tuesday.
Attacking Belgorod and disrupting city life is a dramatic way for Ukraine to demonstrate that it can strike back against Russia, which outnumbers and outweighs Kiev's forces.
There were signs that the attack was worrying the public, political leaders, and military observers, and the tactic appeared to be having some success.
President Putin on Monday strongly condemned Ukraine's attack on Belgorod. “They want to intimidate us and create uncertainty in the country,” he said, pledging to step up retaliation.
“I also feel the smoldering anger,” Putin said in response to a soldier's question about civilian casualties in Belgorod.
Many Russian military bloggers expressed regret that Moscow withdrew from the border area in September 2022 amid Kiev's swift counterattack, adding that it needed much more to secure Belgorod and other border areas. claims that it is necessary to occupy the territory of
Russia describes Ukrainians as “terrorists” who indiscriminately target residential areas, while Moscow is targeting warehouses, weapons factories, etc., despite ample evidence that Russia targets Ukrainian civilians. They claim that they are targeting only military facilities.
Ukrainian officials rarely accept responsibility for attacks on Russian territory.
In another Russian border region, the city of Zheleznogorsk was temporarily cut off from the power grid on Wednesday after Ukrainian military shelling, local officials said.
Kursk region governor Roman Starovoit said on Telegram that authorities were forced to temporarily shut down an electrical substation in the Kursk region's city of 100,000 people to repair damage caused by the air raid.
He said residents were without electricity or heat, but power was restored to much of the city about two hours later.
Russia has recently stepped up its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities, including with the Kinzhal missile, which can fly at 10 times the speed of sound.
The UK Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that Kremlin forces appear to be targeting Ukraine's defense industry.
The onslaught prompted Kiev authorities to request Western allies to provide further air defense support.
NATO announced Wednesday that it will help member states buy up to 1,000 surface-to-air Patriot guided missiles in a deal that could likely cost about $5.5 billion. This could allow alliance members to send more of their defense systems to Ukraine.
