Secretary-General Welcomes Exchange of Ukrainian, Russian Prisoners of War

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

The Secretary-General welcomes the exchange of 230 Ukrainian and 248 Russian prisoners of war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation — the largest such exchange since the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  He commends the efforts of both parties and the third-party facilitation by the United Arab Emirates that contributed to this positive development.

The Secretary-General hopes that this important step will be followed by additional exchanges of prisoners of war and by other de-escalation efforts.