Ukraine brings home 103 POWs in latest exchange with Russia
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Ukraine brought home 103 prisoners of war (POWs) from Russian captivity in the latest exchange between Kyiv and Moscow, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 19.
As part of the exchange, Ukraine handed 103 Russian service members back to Russia, according to Russia's Defense Ministry.
Those released from Russian captivity include service members from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, State Border Guard Service, and National Guard, Zelensky said.
Among those returning are soldiers who defended Mariupol and fought on the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Dnipro, and Sumy sectors of the front line, according to the president.
Most of the service members who returned from captivity are soldiers and sergeants. The oldest is 59, while the youngest is 26, Ukraine's Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said.
Some of those released are also seriously wounded or suffering from serious illnesses, according to Lubinets.
"We remember every man and woman who still remains in captivity. We are doing everything possible to bring all our people home," Zelensky said.
The exchange is the latest in a series of prisoner swaps between Ukraine and Russia, one of the few remaining areas of direct humanitarian cooperation between the two countries amid Russia's full-scale invasion.
Ukraine previously brought home 160 service members from Russian captivity in a prisoner exchange on June 26. A day later, Ukraine secured the return of seven civilians who had been unlawfully held by Russia "for years," according to Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets.
Ukraine and Russia have also continued repatriating the bodies of fallen soldiers despite a broader diplomatic process that has largely stalled.
Ukraine repatriated on Aug. 13 the bodies of 261 people that Russia claimed were Ukrainian service members. Ukrainian investigators and forensic experts were tasked with identifying the remains.
