Ukraine is counting on the return of another 300 of its citizens from Russian detention as early as tomorrow. This was announced by the head of the Secretariat of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Bohdan Okhrimenko. According to him, the final composition of the lists has not yet been specified, so it remains unknown whether civilians will be among those released.
This is reported by Finway
Prisoner Exchange: Details of the Agreements
Bohdan Okhrimenko emphasized that the exchange taking place is a continuation of the agreements reached in Geneva between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. The exchange is being conducted in two stages, as the Russian side was unable to organize the simultaneous return of all captives. The first stage took place on March 5, when 200 Ukrainian soldiers returned home. Today, as part of the second stage, 50 severely wounded and seriously ill soldiers who had been in captivity since 2024 were successfully released.
“This exchange is an agreement reached in Geneva. We are in communication with the Russian side, but unfortunately, the lists have not been adjusted… This is the second stage of one process. Since the Russian Federation could not deliver everyone at once, two stages were proposed,” he told reporters in a comment.
Statistics on Exchanges and Number of Released Individuals
The head of the Russian delegation in negotiations with Ukraine, Vladimir Medinsky, announced that within the agreements in Geneva, a large-scale exchange of prisoners of war will take place on March 5-6, following the scheme of 500 for 500 individuals. The Ukrainian side expressed hopes for the swift conduct of the next stages, but exact dates remain unannounced.
The previous prisoner exchange took place on February 5 of this year — at that time, Ukraine returned 150 military personnel and seven civilians. According to Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, as of March 2, 6,422 Ukrainians have already been returned from Russian captivity, of which 409 are civilians.
President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in February that about 7,000 Ukrainian captives are still held in Russia, and Ukraine continues to make every effort to bring them home.