The second phase of the 500-for-500 prisoner-of-war exchange between Ukraine and Russia is underway, with 300 Ukrainian servicemen and two civilians returning home from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post.
He credited frontline troops whose efforts help maintain Ukraine’s “exchange pool” for enabling swaps.
He also thanked the full team behind the operation and the United States for mediating the deal.
“Importantly, the agreements worked. We remember every single person and are committed to bringing all our people home,” he said.
The returnees include members of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, National Guard, and State Border Guard Service, spanning enlisted soldiers, sergeants, and officers.
They fought across multiple fronts, including Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson regions, and the city of Mariupol.
Most of the freed Ukrainians had been in captivity for more than a year, with some held since 2022.
Ongoing Exchanges as a Rare Area of Cooperation
The swap comes a day after the first phase of the 500-for-500 exchange, in which 200 Ukrainians returned home.
Prisoner swaps remain one of the few areas of cooperation between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, with both sides relying on third-party mediation to carry out the exchanges.
This latest two-stage swap follows the first prisoner exchange of 2026, which took place on Feb. 5. On that day, Ukraine and Russia carried out a swap that resulted in the return of 157 Ukrainians from Russian captivity, Zelensky said.