On Tuesday, May 6, Ukraine and Russia carried out a major prisoner exchange that resulted in the release of 205 Ukrainians from Russian captivity.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the news, stating that the returned soldiers had been held in various regions across Russia.
"We brought them back. I thank everyone who worked on this exchange. I’m grateful to our partners, especially the United Arab Emirates, for their mediation and assistance. Thanks to everyone who cares and continues to speak out about Ukrainians in captivity," Zelensky wrote.
According to Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, this marks the 64th prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. A total of 4,757 Ukrainians have been returned so far.
"Many defenders had been in captivity since the start of the full-scale war; some of them were seriously ill or wounded," Lubinets noted.
According to Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, the released soldiers include personnel from the Armed Forces of Ukraine—particularly the Navy, Air Force, Air Assault Forces, and Territorial Defense Forces—as well as the National Guard and the State Border Guard Service.
Three officers and 202 privates and sergeants are now returning home. The liberated defenders had fought in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv regions, as well as in Kherson, Sumy, Kyiv, and in the Mariupol garrison.
