Ukraine and Russia Exchange Pows in Latest Swap

Reuters

12:20 JST, June 20, 2025

KYIV, June 19 (Reuters) – Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war on Thursday, officials from both countries said, the latest round of swaps under an agreement struck in Istanbul.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted images of the freed Ukrainian troops, smiling and draped in the national flag, most of whom had been held captive since the early months of Russia’s February 2022 invasion, he said.

The Ukrainian POWs exchanged on Thursday were sick or injured, according to Kyiv’s coordinating council for POWs. The Russian POWs would also be sent for treatment and rehabilitation, Moscow’s defence ministry said.

Neither Ukraine nor Russia, whose talks on ending the war have yielded few results besides the exchange of prisoners or remains, provided an exact figure of how many POWs had been exchanged.