{"id":7971,"date":"2025-06-24T00:01:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T00:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/explained-how-ukraine-and-russia-swap-prisoners-of-war\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T00:01:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T00:01:30","slug":"explained-how-ukraine-and-russia-swap-prisoners-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/explained-how-ukraine-and-russia-swap-prisoners-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Explained: How Ukraine and Russia swap prisoners of war"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Explained:<\/p>\n

Even after Ukraine cut diplomatic ties with Russia in 2022, prisoner exchanges have continued as one of the few remaining channels of communication between the two countries. <\/p>\n

Negotiated behind closed doors and carried out irregularly, POW swaps<\/a> \u2014 and the decisions surrounding them \u2014 have long been shrouded in secrecy. Controversies have repeatedly erupted in Ukraine over whether Kyiv is doing enough to bring back its people and which POWs it prioritizes.<\/p>\n

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has consistently proposed an “all-for-all<\/a>” exchange, which Russia has so far rejected. <\/p>\n

As of early June, Ukraine has brought home<\/a> over 5,700 people \u2013 including both soldiers and civilians \u2013 through more than 65 exchanges since Feb. 24, 2022. Thousands of Ukrainians remain in Russian captivity, with the battle for their release still ongoing. <\/p>\n

“Our task is to bring back (all POWs) before the war ends,” Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, told the Kyiv Independent.<\/p>\n

“The war is dragging on, Russia does not want peace, so our task is to organize exchanges as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n

A record number of people were released in recent weeks following peace talks in Istanbul in May-June \u2014 the first direct negotiations<\/a> between Kyiv and Moscow since 2022. Though no political breakthrough was reached, both sides agreed to a phased exchange of prisoners and the return of fallen soldiers’ remains.<\/p>\n

At least one more round of exchange is expected between Ukraine and Russia as part of the Istanbul agreement in the near future.<\/p>\n

Here’s everything you need to know about prisoner swaps between Ukraine and Russia.<\/p>\n

POW exchanges before full-scale invasion<\/code><\/h2>\n

During the war in Donbas<\/a> from 2014 to 2022, prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Russia were far less frequent than they are now, with around 3,500 people released in eight years, according to Yatsenko.<\/p>\n

The swaps included both Ukrainian soldiers and civilians held in Russia<\/a> and in occupied territories and were mostly handled by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU). The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War was only established in March 2022.<\/p>\n

One of the most prominent exchanges took place in September 2019, several months after President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> took office.<\/p>\n

Back then, Ukraine secured the release of 35 people, including filmmaker Oleh Sentsov<\/a> and 24 Ukrainian sailors illegally captured near the Kerch Strait.<\/p>\n

Sentsov was one of the most high-profile political prisoners held by Russia. He was arrested in Crimea in 2014<\/a> by the Russian authorities and later sentenced to 20 years in prison on trumped-up terrorism charges, which were internationally recognized<\/a> as politically motivated.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\nSince the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has consistently proposed an “all-for-all” exchange, which Russia has so far refused.\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Explained:<\/picture>
Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov (C) hugs his daughter Alina Sentsova after landing at Boryspil International Airport near Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 7, 2019. (Pavlo Gonchar\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Types of POW exchanges and their frequency<\/code><\/strong><\/h2>\n

There’s no single fixed formula for prisoner swaps \u2014 each exchange is unique and depends on the circumstances, according to Yatsenko.<\/p>\n

The Headquarters refused to disclose which side normally initiates exchanges, citing the sensitive nature of the information. <\/p>\n

Unlike Ukraine, Russia doesn\u2019t have one government body tasked with negotiating and organizing prisoner exchanges. According to Bohdan Orkhymenko, head of the secretariat of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the Russian side normally includes representatives of the Russian Defense Ministry<\/a>, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Federal Penitentiary Service, and, sometimes, Russia\u2019s Commissioner for Human Rights, Tatyana Moskalkova.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a political agreement on the number of soldiers to release, negotiations move forward faster. If there is no political agreement \u2013 which is more often the case \u2013 the number is agreed upon by the Headquarters and the Russian side. Yatsenko couldn\u2019t share the details of how the sides decide on the number of POWs for each exchange. <\/p>\n

Leading up to each exchange, Ukraine provides the lists of all Ukrainians considered to be in captivity or missing, requesting their return from Russia. <\/p>\n

Ukraine has recorded over 70,000 people as missing<\/a>, the majority of them soldiers, according to Artur Dobroserdov, the commissioner for persons missing under special circumstances.<\/p>\n

Some exchanges take weeks or months of negotiations, often involving several parallel negotiation tracks, according to Yatsenko. But in cases like the recent 1,000-for-1,000 exchange<\/a> agreed upon during Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul<\/a>, there were \u201cno real negotiations.\u201d <\/p>\n

“Each side simply handed over a list, and everyone listed was exchanged,” Yatsenko says. “We retrieved all Ukrainian citizens, and the Russians took everyone we offered them.”<\/p>\n

However, the number of POWs released by Ukraine and Russia isn\u2019t always equal. <\/p>\n

Sometimes, exchanging just one person can secure the release of hundreds of defenders \u2014 like in the prisoner swap that took place in September 2022, when over 200 Ukrainian POW<\/a>s returned home<\/a> in exchange for Viktor Medvedchuk<\/a>, Ukraine’s most high-profile pro-Kremlin politician and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s former right-hand man in the country. <\/p>\n

Medvedchuk was arrested two months into the full-scale invasion on charges of high treason.<\/p>\n

Yatsenko said that Russia initially wanted to exchange Medvedchuk for only one person, and it required significant negotiation skills from the Ukrainian side to secure the 200-for-one deal.<\/p>\n

In the same exchange, five top commanders from the Azovstal defense \u2014 Ukraine’s final stronghold during the Russian siege of Mariupol<\/a> in the spring of 2022 \u2014 were swapped for 55 Russian POWs. <\/p>\n

They were initially taken to Ankara, Turkey. Although Zelensky stated that they would remain in Turkey “until the war ends<\/a>,” the commanders, including Colonel Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Brigade, returned home<\/a> in July 2023.<\/p>\n

\"Explained:<\/picture>
President Volodymyr Zelensky and the commanders who defended the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast, stand aboard a plane on July 8, 2023. (Zelensky\u2019s Facebook page)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There’s no set schedule for how often exchanges take place either. <\/p>\n

Between August 2023 and early January 2024, no prisoner exchanges took place, which was the longest pause since the start of the full-scale invasion. According to Yatsenko, this was due to deliberate delays by the Russian side. <\/p>\n

“We can only speculate about the reasons, but we believe Russia aimed to destabilize the internal situation in Ukraine or to provoke families of POWs into protesting or organizing mass actions,” says Yatsenko. “They wanted to pressure the Ukrainian government this way.”<\/p>\n

Right now, there’s a very “positive trend” of exchanges happening one after another, which means the “chances of reuniting with loved ones are growing,” says Yatsenko.<\/p>\n

Number of POWs and their detention locations<\/code><\/h2>\n

Ukraine does not publicly disclose the number of its soldiers held in Russian captivity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The key issue in identifying all Ukrainian POWs is the lack of Russia\u2019s cooperation, according to Yatsenko, who says that Moscow often refuses to confirm who they captured. That\u2019s why Ukraine\u2019s database of POWs includes many of those whose captivity was corroborated by other former POWs but not necessarily confirmed by Russia. <\/p>\n

“They don’t provide any official confirmation of who they’re holding, and many of our people are listed as missing. There’s a chance some of them are actually in captivity,” Yatsenko says.<\/p>\n

Ukraine also does not disclose the number of Russian troops it holds in its camps. However, Yatsenko says there are “enough of them to carry out further exchanges.”<\/p>\n

“Even large-scale swaps don’t significantly affect the overall number,” he adds.<\/p>\n

Russian POWs in Ukraine are primarily held in five specialized camps<\/a> set up after the start of the full-scale invasion. Their locations are not disclosed for security reasons. Some detainees \u2014 mainly those under investigation for various crimes \u2014 are also held in pre-trial detention centers, but the majority are kept in the POW camps. <\/p>\n

\"Explained:<\/picture>
Russian POWs wait in line to call home at a prisoner-of-war detention camp in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine, on Aug. 3, 2023. (Paula Bronstein\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations, as well as journalists, have access to Russian POWs <\/a>and the facilities where they’re held. ICRC inspections take place every two months and can last several days, according to Yatsenko. <\/p>\n

“We’re fully open. Russia, on the other hand, is completely closed off,” he says. “They don’t allow international representatives, the UN, or the Red Cross. Access is extremely restricted.” <\/p>\n

Russia doesn’t have any specialized camps for POWs that meet the standards outlined in the Third Geneva Convention, according to Yatsenko. The Coordination Headquarters has identified and mapped 186 locations where POWs and illegally detained civilians are being held.<\/p>\n

“These 186 detention sites are scattered across a vast area \u2014 from the temporarily occupied territories and beyond the Urals. There’s even some evidence that our people are being held in facilities in Belarus<\/a>,” Yatsenko says. <\/p>\n