Ukraine and Russia swap 185 prisoners in rare back-channel exchange

Ukraine and Russia exchanged 185 service personnel each and Kyiv also brought home one civilian, a small but telling sign that the two sides still have functioning channels of contact even as the war grinds on. For families waiting for news since the first months of the invasion, the swap meant the return of men who had vanished into captivity years ago, many of them held since 2022.

Ukrainian officials said more than half of those returned had been captured in 2022, a reminder of how long the conflict has stretched the fate of prisoners. Kyiv said the oldest Ukrainian freed in the exchange was 62 and the youngest was 26. The returned men included members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Guard and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, with some who had served in Mariupol and at Azovstal, two of the war’s most symbolic and devastating battlefields. Ukrainian outlets said two of the freed servicemen were officers.

The exchange was described as the 75th prisoner swap between Kyiv and Moscow, and it followed a broader understanding to trade 1,000 prisoners each under a three-day ceasefire framework brokered by the United States in early May. The United Arab Emirates also helped mediate the deal, underscoring how prisoner exchanges have become one of the few areas where outside actors can still help produce results between the warring sides. Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said the arrangement brought home 186 Ukrainians in total when the civilian was counted.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its 185 servicemen were returned as part of the same exchange and were taken to Belarus for psychological and medical care. That detail, along with the equal numbers, suggests the swap was built around parity and managed negotiation rather than a symbolic one-sided release. It also points to the practical reality of the war: even as battlefield fighting continues across Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kyiv and the Kursk direction, both governments still have enough contact to arrange limited humanitarian progress.

For Ukraine, each returning prisoner carries a political and emotional weight that reaches far beyond the numbers. For Russia, the exchange shows that it remains willing to participate in tightly controlled deals even while the wider war continues. The result is not peace, but it is proof that the back channels have not gone silent.