UAE mediation helps in Ukraine-Russia prisoner swap

The United Arab Emirates has announced the success of mediation efforts in a new exchange of war captives between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Ukraine, which included 175 Ukrainian captives and 175 Russian captives – 350 captives in total – bringing the overall number exchanged through UAE mediation efforts to 3,233.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) expressed its appreciation to the Russian Federation and the Republic of Ukraine for their cooperation with the UAE’s mediation endeavours. This reflects the appreciation of both countries for the UAE’s role in supporting all efforts to resolve the crisis between the two nations.

The Ministry emphasised that the success of this mediation, the thirteenth, reflects the distinguished ties between the UAE and the two countries.

Furthermore, the Ministry reaffirmed the UAE’s commitment to ensuring the success of all efforts aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine, and mitigating the humanitarian impacts as a result of the crisis, including on refugees and captives.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said he had a “very good” call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, insisting that efforts to secure a ceasefire remained on track despite the lack of a deal so far with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

As Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of not respecting a halt in attacks against energy infrastructure, agreed during Trump’s talks with Putin on Tuesday, the US president said he spoke for around an hour with his Ukrainian counterpart.

“Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.

“We are very much on track.”

The call was believed to be the first between the pair since Trump and Zelensky had a blazing, televised row in the Oval Office two and a half weeks ago that led to a brief halt in US aid for Ukraine.

Zelensky later relented and agreed to a US plan for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire with Russia, plus a deal giving Washington preferential access to Ukraine’s minerals.

Kyiv said Zelensky was being briefed about Tuesday’s call between Trump and Putin that saw the Kremlin leader agree to a limited 30-day halt on strikes against Ukraine’s power grid.

But Putin refused to agree to a full ceasefire, insisting that Western aid to Kyiv must first stop, that Ukraine must not be allowed to rearm, and that it must halt mandatory mobilisation.