More than 470 prisoners of war on both sides are returning home after swap deals stalled in the second half of 2023.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in the largest release of prisoners of war since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.

Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday that 230 of their prisoners had been released, while Russia said 248 of its soldiers had been returned following mediation by the United Arab Emirates.

While the two sides conducted several swaps during the war, the swaps stalled in the second half of last year. The latest exchange was the first in nearly five months.

“More than 200 of our soldiers and civilians have been returned from Russian captivity,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced in a post on the messaging app Telegram that included a video of uniformed men celebrating.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said 230 Ukrainian prisoners, including six civilians, were released, which he said marked the 49th exchange between the two sides.

Kiev said this was the largest documented troop exchange to date.

Some of the Ukrainians have been held since 2022. Among them were some who fought in landmark battles over Ukraine’s Snake Island and the port city of Mariupol.

The Russian Defense Ministry said 248 of its soldiers had been returned after “complex” negotiations with the UAE. Russian officials did not provide further details of the exchange.

Attacks on Belgorod

On too WednesdayRussia said it shot down 12 missiles fired at one of its southern border regions with Ukraine.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said the situation remained “tense” after Ukraine launched repeated missile and drone attacks.

While there were no reports of the casualty toll from the latest attack, Gladkov said authorities were evacuating residents near possible unexploded munitions and calling in bomb disposal units to assess the danger.

Defense Ministry technicians were working to dispose of an unexploded projectile and about 600 residents from 323 homes within a 500-meter (550-yard) radius were evacuated, he said.

Gladkow added that several other villages also came under fire in Wednesday’s attack and a power line was cut.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine fired six Tochka-U ballistic missiles and six guided missiles from a heavy multiple rocket launcher “Vilcha”.

Ukraine stepped up its attacks on Belgorod over the New Year after Russia launched some of the most significant attacks on Ukraine since the war began.

On Tuesday, Kiev said Moscow had fired more than 300 attack drones and missiles of various types across Ukraine since Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised that Kiev’s attacks on Belgorod “will not go unpunished.”