Ukraine Returns 157 Soldiers, Civilians in First POW Exchange of 2026

February 6 ------ Ukraine and Russia carried out a prisoner exchange that resulted in the return of 157 Ukrainians from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“Ours are home – 157 Ukrainians,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, calling the exchange especially significant as it took place after a long pause in swaps. He said those freed included soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service, as well as civilians. “Most of them had been in captivity since 2022,” the president said, thanking everyone involved in organizing the exchange and Ukrainian forces whose actions help sustain Ukraine’s negotiating position.

Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said the swap was the first prisoner exchange of 2026 and the 71st since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

According to the headquarters, Ukraine secured the release of 150 military personnel and seven civilians. Those freed include servicemen from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including the Navy, Ground Forces, Air Assault Forces, Air Force, and Territorial Defense units, as well as members of the National Guard and the State Border Guard Service. In addition to soldiers and sergeants, several officers were also released, the headquarters said.

Many defenders held since Mariupol siege

The freed servicemen defended Ukraine on multiple fronts, including in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Sumy, and Kyiv regions.

More than half of those released were captured during the defense of Mariupol in 2022, according to the Coordination Headquarters. A National Guard serviceman captured during Russia’s seizure of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant was also among those freed. The headquarters said 139 of those returned on Thursday had been held in Russian captivity since 2022.

The Kyiv Post correspondent filmed the reaction of Ukrainian woman Olha, who finally received a call from her husband Ruslan, captured in Mariupol in the spring of 2022. He was released as part of Thursday’s exchange - the first swap in more than four months after Russia had blocked the process.

Source: kyivpost.com