Today, 205 Ukrainian servicemen were returned from Russian captivity. The group includes soldiers from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the release marks the first stage of a planned 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.
Among those freed are privates, sergeants, and officers. Most had been held captive since 2022.
The released soldiers fought in Mariupol and at the Azovstal plant, as well as in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, and Kyiv regions, and at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
“Thank you to everyone working to bring our people home – especially our soldiers, who help replenish Ukraine’s exchange fund, and our entire team,” Zelensky said.
Previously, Ukraine provided the Russian side with a ‘list of 1,000’ prisoners of war, compiled according to how long Ukrainian defenders had been held in captivity.
