(Kyiv) – More than half of the Ukrainian defenders taken prisoner following the siege of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol have now been released from Russian captivity, according to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate. The announcement marks a rare moment of progress in the ongoing effort to bring home all of the captured Ukrainian soldiers who bravely held the plant during Russia’s brutal assault on the city.
Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, said that of the estimated 2,500 Ukrainian troops who were evacuated or withdrawn from Azovstal in 2022, a total of 1,279 have been returned so far. Among those released, 455 are from the Azov Regiment, one of the most prominent and targeted units by the Russian dictatorship.
Yusov described the release as statistically strong compared to many other military units, but acknowledged the pain still endured by families waiting for loved ones. “Statistics do not replace relatives for specific families,” he said, “but it is an indicator of the work that is ongoing at this time.”
He added that the recent large-scale prisoner swap, carried out in a “1000 for 1000” format, resulted in the release of personnel from 46 different military units. Notably, many of these units had never seen a single soldier returned from captivity until now. The intelligence community described this as a major breakthrough, not just in lives saved, but in gathering crucial information on detention conditions, locations, and the personal accounts of survivors still being held.
Despite these gains, Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine, clarified that no soldiers from the 12th Special Purpose Brigade “Azov” were part of the recent exchange. He stressed that this was not due to Russian refusal, but rather because of a shift in Ukraine’s strategic approach to prisoner negotiations, with the need to offer the aggressor “more important lots” in order to secure key releases.
