Russia and Ukraine completed a swap of 205 prisoners of war (POWs) from each side on May 15, as part of an agreement linked to a three-day ceasefire earlier this month brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was the first step in a larger POW exchange, after Kyiv and Moscow agreed to swap 1,000 each under the terms of the deal.
Two hundred and five Ukrainians “are home. Most of them had been in Russian captivity since 2022,” Zelenskyy said in a May 15 post on Telegram, posting pictures of smiling servicemen, many draped in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag.
“Among the released are privates, sergeants, and officers,” he said. “Most of them have been in Russian captivity since 2022. They defended Ukraine in Mariupol and Azovstal, in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kyiv directions, and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.”
Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) said via a May 15 post on Telegram that a large section of the returned servicemen had been held captive after the months-long defence of Mariupol, a southeastern port city that fell to Russian forces in 2022.
HUR said Kyiv had managed to bring home several dozen officers in addition to soldiers and sergeants.
“The youngest released Defender is 21 years old, the oldest is 62 years old,” the Telegram post revealed, adding that Ukraine expressed its “gratitude to the United States of America and the United Arab Emirates for their important mediation and facilitation.”
In addition, both sides conducted an exchange of those who had fallen in the fighting, with Russia handing over the bodies of 526 soldiers to Ukraine and receiving 41 in return, Russian state media Ria Novosti reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry also confirmed the numbers in a May 15 post on Telegram, adding that the servicemen “are currently in Belarus, receiving the necessary medical and psychological assistance,” as well as thanking the UAE for its part in the deal.
The post was accompanied by a video showing soldiers waving the Russian flag.
POW exchanges have become one of the few tangible results of the U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
Talks to end the war have stalled despite the May 9–11 ceasefire, which began on the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War 2, known as “Victory Day” in Moscow.
The tentative halt to hostilities, however, was beset by accusations of violations by both Moscow and Kyiv.
The Russian Ministry of Defense alleged that the armed forces of Ukraine carried out 1,173 strikes against Russian troops during the ceasefire that was supposed to last from May 9 through May 11.
Moscow said that Ukrainian forces “delivered 7,151 strikes using unmanned aerial vehicles” in about a dozen Russian positions.
“A total of 8,970 ceasefire violations were recorded in the special military operation zone,” the Russian Ministry of Defense alleged in a Telegram post on May 10.
Meanwhile, Ukraine accused Russia of conducting drone strikes and nearly 150 battlefield clashes in the space of 24 hours.
Hours after the truce ended, Russia launched its longest and largest aerial attack on Ukraine, firing more than 1,500 drones and dozens of missiles and killing more than 30 people in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Kyiv has also carried out drone attacks on targets in Russia, aiming to knock out oil refineries, depots, and pipelines.
Despite the ongoing violence, Trump said on May 12 that the war, which he promised to end during his election campaign, is ”very close” to concluding and that he expects Russia and Ukraine to reach a settlement.
“The end of the war in Ukraine, I really think it’s getting very close,” Trump told reporters on May 12, as he left the White House for a trip to China.
Trump’s comments followed similar remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who suggested during the May 9 Victory Day commemorations that the conflict may be nearing an end, while giving no indication that Moscow is prepared to abandon its core war aims.
“I think it’s coming to an end, but it’s still a serious matter,” Putin told reporters in Moscow.
Reuters, Jacki Thrapp, and Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
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