Freed Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) react while they leave a bus after a swap, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, in an undisclosed location, in Ukraine March 5, 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS
Ukraine and Russia exchanged 200 prisoners of war (POW) each on Thursday in their latest swap, officials on both sides said, despite a deadlock in US-backed negotiations to end the four-year conflict.
Kyiv and Moscow have carried out regular POW exchanges throughout the war, committing during recent talks in Geneva to a new round of such swaps even as negotiations remain stuck over the question of territory.
“Every time our people come home, it proves that Ukraine is working to bring everyone back. No one is forgotten,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X.
Today, 200 Ukrainian families received the most-awaited message – their loved ones are coming home. And this is always good news for all of us, for the entire country: the return of our people to their homeland. Among those returning are defenders of Mariupol, and of the Donetsk,… pic.twitter.com/08zeuuEx3p
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 5, 2026
“We involve mediators. I am grateful to everyone who helps Ukraine. I thank the United States for its support in making this exchange possible.”
Read More: Ukraine marks four years of war
Some of the POWs freed on Thursday were captured as far back as Moscow’s siege of Mariupol in early 2022, Zelenskiy added.
Tearful relatives greeted loved ones, many of them draped in Ukrainian flags, as they emerged from a bus that had arrived at an undisclosed location to chants of “Welcome!”
The two sides are expected to trade a further 300 POWs each in a second day of exchanges on Friday, officials said.
