Fresh prisoner swap brings Ukrainian fighters back home

“We continue exchanges, another stage. Today, soldiers of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service are returning. Most of them have been in captivity since 2014. We are doing everything to find everyone, to check the information on each name,” Zelenskyy wrote.

According to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, soldiers of the Armed Forces, National Guard, and State Border Guard Service are returning to Ukraine. Among them are servicemen from the Special Forces, motorized infantry brigades, marines, and air assault troops.

There are also defenders of Mariupol and those who were captured in 2022. Some of the defenders were in search and were not confirmed by Russia.

There are also officers among those returned. The oldest is 62 years old, and the youngest is 24 years old.

“This process is the result of hard work carried out by government agencies that are part of the Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. It is carried out on behalf of the President of Ukraine,” Lubinets wrote.

Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said that most of the released prisoners had been in captivity since 2022.

“The stories of some of them are a real miracle. They were considered missing, but despite that, the state continued to search for them. And today they are with us,” he wrote.

Prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Russia

During the first round of talks in Istanbul on May 16, Ukraine and Russia agreed on a large-scale exchange of prisoners in the 1,000-for-1,000 format. It took place in three stages from May 23 to May 25.

Following the second round of talks in Türkiye on June 2, the parties agreed on a new large-scale exchange. The parties agreed to exchange all seriously wounded and seriously ill soldiers, as well as all prisoners aged 18 to 25.

Prior to today's exchange, five exchanges had already been carried out under the new arrangements - on June 9, 10, 12, 14, 19, and 20. During the previous one, soldiers from the Land Forces, the Special Forces, the Airborne Forces, the Unmanned Systems Forces, as well as the State Border Guard Service and the National Guard, returned home.

It was another stage of the exchange of seriously wounded and seriously ill. Among the released prisoners were once again the defenders of Mariupol, who had been held in captivity since 2022.

In Istanbul, the delegations of Ukraine and Russia also agreed to return bodies in the format of 6,000-for-6,000.

The last stage of the exchange under these agreements took place on June 16. In total, the Russians handed over 6,057 bodies.

However, it turned out that among the repatriated bodies, there were also bodies of Russian military personnel. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the bodies of 20 people who were handed over to Ukraine as dead soldiers turned out to be Russians.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that Ukraine had already returned the bodies of three Russian servicemen to Russia during the repatriation of Ukrainian defenders.