Prisoner exchanges with Russia continue, happening even on the battlefield – Zelensky

The prisoner-of-war swap between Ukraine and Russia persists, often occurring discreetly and directly on the battlefield.

President Volodymyr Zelensky stated this in an interview with the Associated Press.

As the head of state reported, Ukraine is replenishing the exchange fund; prisoner exchanges are also ongoing.

"We exchange. We fill our exchange fund, and then exchanges happen. We often exchange prisoners of war not so loudly or publicly.

We exchange right on the battlefield. When we have 10 of their prisoners, and they have a few of our guys, we try to exchange. The commanders have orders for all this, and they know what to do," Zelensky said.

https://youtu.be/lV7uWR6wGWA

The president said that over the past six months, Ukraine was able to return about 100 soldiers from captivity. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, several thousand Ukrainian soldiers have been freed from Russian captivity.

Zelensky also mentioned that currently, several thousand Ukrainian soldiers are being held captive.

For reference:

As noted on November 17, the Ministry of Reintegration said that 4,337 Ukrainians were captured — this is the number that was established. That is, there are 3,574 military personnel and 763 civilians. One thousand nine hundred fifty-three of them were released from captivity.

It should be noted that the last exchange of prisoners took place on August 7. Then Ukraine returned another 22 defenders from Russian captivity. Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada [Ukraine's parliament – ed.] Commissioner for Human Rights, said that this was the 48th exchange that was successfully held. After that, no new exchanges took place.

So far, 2,598 Ukrainians have returned home from captivity.

It should also be mentioned that the places of detention of Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine are overcrowded.

At the end of November, the Coordination Headquarters was informed that the Russian Federation had suspended prisoner exchanges to influence Ukrainian society.

In addition, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets previously noted that many Russian prisoners want to return home, but Russia ignores their requests and refuses to exchange them with Ukraine.