Two officers, 101 soldiers—Ukraine’s newest homecoming from Russian cells
The group spans four years of the war, from the fall of Mariupol to captures made only months ago.
On 19 August 2026, Ukraine announced the homecoming of 103 servicemembers from Russian captivity as part of a new prisoner exchange. Most of the returning defenders were wounded or seriously ill due to captivity that, for some, lasted since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. The United States and the United Arab Emirates assisted in organizing the swap. Prisoner exchanges have become one of the few channels for communication between Kyiv and Moscow during Moscow's invasion.
The group freed included members from all branches of Ukraine's forces, such as the Armed Forces, Navy, Territorial Defense, National Guard, and State Border Guard Service. It also comprised several officers. The Defense Ministry accounted for 92 of the freed soldiers, while the Interior Ministry took responsibility for 11. Two of the returnees were officers.
The captives were taken from various fronts, including Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Sumy, as well as Mariupol. The youngest defender was 20 years old, and the oldest was 59.
The released defenders will receive medical examinations, physical and psychological rehabilitation, and state payments. Most of them arrived at the prison camps severely wounded and ill, mirroring a pattern of Russia starving most captives and executing many surrendered soldiers on the battlefield. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized that the freed included men who defended Mariupol and reiterated the ongoing efforts to bring all Ukrainian citizens home.
Written by urgent.news from Euromaidan Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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