Russia and Ukraine carried out a major prisoner exchange on Wednesday, with each side releasing 185 captives, marking the latest in a rare channel of cooperation between the two countries despite the ongoing war.
Russia’s defense ministry announced via Telegram that 185 Russian servicemen were returned from Ukrainian custody, along with 20 civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the exchange, sharing images of the freed Ukrainians draped in national flags, many smiling and freshly shaven after months in detention.
“Alongside our defenders, 20 civilians are also returning home. Everyone will receive all the support they need,” Zelensky said on social media.
He added that since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, more than 7,000 Ukrainians have been brought back through prisoner swaps.
Large-scale exchanges have become the only concrete outcome of earlier peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
Three rounds of negotiations in Istanbul between May and July 2022 failed to deliver progress toward ending the conflict, but they paved the way for regular prisoner and body repatriations.
While both nations have remained silent on the true scale of their battlefield losses, tens of thousands of soldiers are believed to have been killed since the war began.
The ongoing swaps stand out as one of the few humanitarian gestures in a war that continues to exact a devastating toll.
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