Today, 14 June, the next stage of the exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia took place. Ukraine returned home a group of seriously ill, severely wounded and young soldiers.
This was reported by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
“Today, the next stage of the large exchange of prisoners in the category of ‘wounded and seriously ill’ took place in accordance with the agreements in Istanbul. On behalf of the President of Ukraine, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War returned from Russian captivity defenders with injuries and health problems,” the Coordination Headquarters said in a statement.
Servicemen of the Armed Forces, including the Airborne Forces, Navy, and the Special Forces, as well as the State Border Guard Service, National Guard of Ukraine, and State Special Transport Service, returned to their homeland.
The vast majority of the defence personnel released today had been in captivity since 2022. Many of them were captured during the defence of Mariupol.
Most of the defenders released today are officers. Also, some of those released are under the age of 25.
In general, Ukrainians who fought in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Sumy and Kursk sectors are returning home.
The defenders released from captivity will undergo the necessary medical examination, receive physical and psychological rehabilitation, as well as all due payments for the entire period of their captivity.
According to the I Want to Live project of the Coordination Centre, as part of this exchange, wounded prisoners of war were handed over to the Russian side directly from the front line.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine expects the prisoner exchange with Russia to be completed on 20 or 21 June, and that the parties would then begin discussing the next steps.
- On 2 June, the delegations of Ukraine and Russia agreed in Istanbul on new prisoner exchanges. According to Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, there is an agreement to focus on specific categories rather than numbers: the exchange of seriously wounded and seriously ill prisoners of war; the second category is young soldiers aged 18 to 25. There was also an agreement on the return of 6,000 bodies of fallen soldiers.
- On 9 June, the exchange of prisoners of war between Ukraine and Russia began as part of the Istanbul agreements. The exchange will continue in several stages.
- On 12 June, the next stage of the large-scale prisoner exchange was completed, with the return of seriously wounded and seriously ill defenders from Russian captivity. On 10 June, the second stage of the exchange took place – the parties returned home groups of wounded and seriously injured soldiers.