A released prisoner of war wrapped in a Ukrainian national flag walks past families holding portraits of their missing or captured relatives, upon his arrival following a prisoner exchange in the Chernygiv region on March 5, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. GENYA SAVILOV / AFP
Ukraine and Russia each freed 200 prisoners of war on Thursday, the first part of an exchange that will see them swap 500 people each in total, officials said. The two sides agreed to the exchange during talks in Geneva last month, both sides said. Prisoner swaps are one of the few areas of cooperation between the warring countries. "Today, 200 Ukrainian families received the most-awaited message – their loved ones are coming home," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
Video shared by Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets showed servicemen leaving buses, wrapped in Ukrainian flags and shouting "Glory to Ukraine!", as well as embracing those who came to welcome them. Among those freed were Ukrainian soldiers captured in 2022, including some who fought in the three-month-long Russian siege of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, said Lubinets.
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With an estimated 500,000 killed, the Russia-Ukraine war is Europe's deadliest since 1945
