Home › Security › What the 30 December 2024 prisoner swap involved
What the 30 December 2024 prisoner swap involved
Summary
A look back at the UAE-brokered exchange of hundreds of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine, as it stood on 1 January 2025.
What had changed for prisoners of war as 2025 began? On 1 January 2025, the most recent exchange between Russia and Ukraine was the one carried out on 30 December 2024, in which the two sides swapped hundreds of prisoners of war.
The deal was brokered by the United Arab Emirates. Ukraine said that many of those released by Russia were soldiers captured during the Siege of Mariupol in 2022.
Why the exchanges matter
Prisoners of war on both sides have faced several forms of abuse during the war that began in 2022, including mistreatment, exposure to public curiosity, torture and even execution. Exchanges are the route by which captured soldiers return home, and the swap on 30 December 2024 brought back people held since the early months of the invasion.
The account available as of 1 January 2025 was limited to these points: a mediated exchange of hundreds of prisoners, the Emirati role as broker, and Ukraine's statement about the Mariupol captives.
