President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine has returned 10 servicemen from Russian captivity who had previously been considered missing in action.
"Today, as part of a special exchange stage, we are returning 10 of our warriors – via Belarus. Servicemen of the Armed Forces and the National Guard of Ukraine. They defended the country in the Donetsk sector. All of them were considered missing. And it is very important that we managed to return them," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Monday.
He stressed that everyone who remains in captivity is remembered, and that they are being searched for "by every name." "And we will do everything to free them and bring them home," the head of state added.
According to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the second stage of another prisoner exchange took place on Monday.
"On the instructions of the President, today, on Independence Day, we managed to return another ten Ukrainian citizens from the Republic of Belarus. These are servicemen of the Armed Forces and the National Guard: sergeants, soldiers, sailors. The exchange became possible as a result of negotiations conducted by the working group on exchanges of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War," the Coordination Headquarters said on its Telegram channel.
The headquarters specified that two of those released from captivity had been considered missing since 2024, and eight since 2025. All of them will receive the necessary support and treatment and undergo a course of rehabilitation.
As reported, 103 Ukrainian servicemen, including 31 severely wounded, were returned from Russian captivity on Wednesday, August 19. Among those released are servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service and the National Guard, including defenders who took part in the defense of Mariupol and who fought in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Dnipro and Sumy sectors. The youngest of the freed servicemen was born in 2000, and the oldest is 59.
