Again without Azov. How the exchanges of prisoners of war are conducted and what they hide

On August 14, Ukraine and the Russian Federation held another exchange, with 84 prisoners returning home. This exchange was special: among those returned are civilians, those enslaved since 2014, and defenders of Mariupol. All of these are very problematic categories of people for exchanges, and Russia has been demonstratively silent about their fate for years.

But the most difficult category of prisoners of war is the captured Azov people. Russia has identified them as the "main enemy" in this war. They were not included in this exchange again.

The exchange of prisoners was the only concrete result of the agreements reached between Russia and Ukraine on June 2 in Istanbul. Since then, ten exchanges have taken place, resulting in the release of more than 1,000 Ukrainian servicemen.

However, thousands of Ukrainian defenders remain in Russian prisons.

Where exactly and how much is impossible to establish for sure. For various reasons. The Russians deliberately block information. Russian officials are "losing" Ukrainian defenders inside their prison system. Russian supervisors do not always distinguish between prisoners of war and civilians abducted from the occupied territories. Each exchange is almost turning into a special operation, the outcome of which is not predetermined.

You will learn from this text:

• It is difficult for the Russians to replace anyone but Azov defenders;
• How the preparations for the exchanges are going;
• Why those who have returned home should not be greeted with portraits of those still in captivity.

"The guards don't care about you". How the released defenders see the exchanges

"When they take you away, you don't know where they are taking you," he says LIGA.net national Guard member Dmytro Kyhym. He was guarding the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and was captured on the first day of the full-scale invasion, February 24, 2022.

During this time, he realized that the phrase "out of the cell with your belongings to the exit" can mean many options, and an exchange is the least likely of them all. For example, prisoners could simply be transferred to another cell or even taken to another place of exile.

Dmytro was lucky only 933 days later.

"We were taken from our cell in the afternoon. They brought us to the airfield, blindfolded us, and put us on a plane. "Then we landed somewhere for the sake of fishing and took more people," Kygym recalls. "Only when we were disembarked from the plane were we allowed to go to the toilet, and they started loading us onto buses. Only there did they say they were taking us for an exchange."

Such explanations are not always given. Marine Tarantul recalls that on the bus he was convinced that they were taking him from a Donetsk hospital to Olenivka, saying that they had treated him and that was enough. But on the way, he realized that it was most likely an exchange.

Valeriy Paditel, commander of the Steel Frontier brigade, who was head of the Donetsk border guard detachment in Mariupol at the beginning of the invasion, tells us LIGA.netwhen he was taken from Olenivka, he was convinced that they were taking him to the next stage:

They took it hard. They stripped us naked. We sat on the courts for five hours. Then they loaded us into cars and drove for almost a day. They brought us to the airport and put us on a plane. I was already thinking they would take me to the taiga. I told the soldier next to me: "My friend, we will be locked up so tightly that it will probably take a couple of weeks to get back by train." My eyes were blindfolded. Hands are tied. You can't see who is sitting next to you.

The plane landed several times. When they were transferred to a bus in Gomel and taken to the border post, I realized that I was really returning to Ukraine.

Perhaps the only indirect sign of the exchange for the prisoners is the indifference of the Russian supervisors. "When we were thrown back into the paddy wagons after the plane, I thought: "Oh, shit!" And then I realized that the guards did not react to us in any way. They didn't care at all. It means they are not taking us to the zone." tells us veteran Kostyantyn Myrhorodskyi tells about his exchange.

A certain indifference was indeed evident, confirms Kygym. He says that during his exchange, they began to blindfold him at the airfield: "The blindfolds were made of garbage bags, like ninja turtles, with tape over them. But somehow I shook my head, and they wrapped the tape around me like a pirate – I had this bag over one eye and could see everything. When they were putting me back in my seat, I told the Russian directly: "Chief, this is not my seat, my duffel bag is further away. He didn't even react to the fact that I could see everything."

However, the anticipation of an exchange does not guarantee anything to the prisoners: cases when the Russians have already brought them to the exchange site but have not exchanged them are far from isolated.

Thousands or tens of thousands? How many Ukrainians are in captivity in Russia?

Before the large-scale exchanges began in the summer of 2025, the Register of Missing Persons contained about 10,000 names. The official position of the state is that those who, according to the ICRC, are allegedly in Russian captivity are also considered missing.

"Because, unfortunately, there are not isolated cases when both the Red Cross and the Russian Ministry of Defense confirm that a person is in captivity, but he or she returns home on a shield," he explains LIGA.net Maryna, wife of a soldier who went missing in April 2023 while performing a combat mission near Avdiivka.

Until the person returns to the territory of Ukraine or until a match appears in the DNA database, the person remains in the Unified Register of Missing Persons, she adds.

Every day in captivity can be the last," adds Tarantul, a marine with the 503rd Brigade.

Before the start of these large-scale exchanges this summer, the number of Ukrainians in Russian captivity had been around 10,000 for several years, says Natalia Yepifanova, head of the NGO Voyatsky Vyvzvol, a lawyer.

The number of Russians in Ukrainian captivity is less, according to LIGA.net three interlocutors in the command of different structures of the Defense Forces. There are many reasons for this. Both the fact that the front is moving deeper into Ukraine and the fact that the exchanges are not "one-to-one" – the occupiers set a certain "price" for different servicemen.

At the same time, the DIU denies the statements of Russian propagandists that Ukraine has already run out of Russian prisoners, while Russia is holding "tens of thousands" of Ukrainian defenders. "This is a lie," emphasizes LIGA.net "Lies that are deliberately accelerated to sow panic and disbelief within Ukrainian society and to increase the cheerleading of patriotism in Russia.

He emphasizes that there are no tens of thousands of Ukrainian prisoners in Russia, but there are thousands of Russian prisoners in Ukraine. "The work on replenishing the exchange fund will continue despite various manipulations," adds Yusov. "We do not comment on specific figures, but we are talking about thousands of Russian occupants.

Moreover, not only Russians are being held captive in Ukraine. Since 2022, Ukrainian forces have captured more than 100 citizens from 32 countries on the front line. Most of the prisoners are from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Nepal, Belarus, and Sri Lanka.

According to the Coordination Headquarters for Prisoners of War, the number of foreigners is growing: while in 2022 there were only 1% of them, as of July 2025, there were already 49%.

Find and confirm. What are the main difficulties of exchange

"Your defender has been exchanged today. Congratulations!" – this is the message families receive from the Coordination Headquarters when Ukrainian soldiers cross the border.

Before that, representatives of the headquarters usually call their relatives, he clarifies LIGA.net Anastasia Obertas, civic activist and wife of Kostyantyn Myrhorodskyi, a veteran released from captivity: "Before you get that text message unexpectedly, a real person calls you first to make sure you don't get sick with happiness."

The Geneva Convention describes in detail the obligations of the parties with regard to prisoners of war, but does not regulate the issue of exchange. However, it does provide a general framework.

Theoretically, according to the Geneva Convention, prisoner exchanges should take place after the full cessation of hostilities and the signing of a peace agreement or surrender. The registers of prisoners of war, missing persons, deportees, and forcibly displaced persons are maintained by the National Information Bureau, which is created by each party to the conflict. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) acts as an independent intermediary that transmits information between the parties.

But in the Russian-Ukrainian war, we need to make allowances for Russia, which is indifferent to international humanitarian law. That is why every exchange is almost a special operation.

Confirm captivity without running into fraudsters

The first difficult task is to confirm the fact of captivity and establish his whereabouts.

The procedure should have been simple: the enemy transmits information about the capture to the ICRC, which records the prisoner as being under the protection of the Geneva Convention, explains Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate.

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, this did not happen on a large scale, he states: "Now the situation has improved somewhat, but there is still a certain percentage of prisoners whose fate we learn from other sources."

It is not uncommon for prisoners who were on the list of missing persons to appear at exchanges. Neither the Red Cross nor we had any official information about them," says Yusov. "Until the middle of the full-scale invasion, there were about half of such cases. Now there are fewer of them, but they are still recorded.

Some of the prisoners are deliberately kept silent by the Russians. They either do not confirm the fact of their captivity or simply ignore requests. Anastasia Obertas says that her husband was lucky – his captivity was confirmed by the Red Cross. However, when she tried to gather more information about his health and whereabouts, she was unable to get any information from the Russians.

Often relatives have to turn to lawyers in Russia. Her family had one too.

"When I knew for sure that Kostya was being held in SIZO-2 in Bryansk Oblast, the lawyer went there to get information about his condition," says Anastasia: "We don't have any Ukrainians at all." Although this is a pre-trial detention center that has been completely liberated for Ukrainian prisoners. The lawyer was responsible and decided to check SIZO-1. There she was told: "All the prisoners are in SIZO-2". The Ministry of Defense responded to her request with a reply that they do not provide such data."

The Russians "lose" some prisoners of war within their repressive system due to the disorder. While in Ukraine, the ICRC works with the National Information Bureau, which was established immediately after the start of the full-scale conflict, in Russia it works with certain authorized units of the Ministry of Defense, says LIGA.net natalia Yepifanova, head of the NGO Voyatsky Vyzvol, lawyer.

In addition, when Ukrainian defenders are captured en masse, the Russian system cannot and does not aim to control where these people are transferred.

"As a result of this Russian mess, when prisoners are moved between colonies, they simply lose them," says Epifanova. "That's why there are stories when a family knows that their defender is in captivity, but they can't find out where exactly for months.

Thus, information about the fate of prisoners of war is collected from various sources: from the Red Cross, from commanders or comrades-in-arms, from the words of defenders released from captivity, and from propaganda resources.

The problem is that it is difficult to understand the logic of the Russians' exchanges, say the interviewed families of the prisoners. "If there were more ways to influence Russia on the issue of exchanges, speculation on the hopes of relatives would not turn into a business," emphasizes Obertas.

Relatives of prisoners of war confirm that either they or the families of their acquaintances have encountered fraudsters who offered to "move up in the queue in the exchange lists," "put them on the exchange lists for a particular month," or in any other way "facilitate the return" of a defender. No such lists exist, but people are desperate enough to turn to any murky scheme, Obertas admits.

Problem categories. Azov and the defenders of Mariupol

At the same time, the Russians themselves are trying to divide the prisoners into "castes" and to build their own attitude to certain units into the exchange process.

The Russians place a special emphasis on the Azov people. During interrogations of many Ukrainian prisoners, the occupiers persistently ask whether they were part of the Azov and whether they have any relation to it, says Obertas: "I'm sure that there are additional obstacles [during exchanges] on the part of Russia regarding the Azov people. They have chosen them as their enemies."

The last conditionally massive exchange of Azov people took place in the spring of 2023, as recalled by LIGA.net Natalia Kravtsova, mother of a prisoner of war from Azov. At that time, 45 soldiers of the unit were returned from captivity at once. Later, they were not returned in such numbers.

In total, about 2,500 defenders left Azovstal, of whom 1,247 were Azovites, he said LIGA.net Yusov. More than 1,270 of them (including 455 Azov fighters) have already been released.

But the entire Mariupol garrison, not just Azov, remains a huge problem, emphasizes Yepifanova. At the time of the full-scale invasion, her nephew was serving in the Mariupol military unit 3057 of the National Guard. In 2023, the Azov Brigade was formed on the basis of this unit. The Russians do not distinguish between the soldiers who in 2022 belonged to the core of the 3057th National Guard and those who underwent military training and belonged to a separate special forces unit, Azov. For them, they are all Azovites.

Another problematic category is the 1,500 defenders who came out of the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol. They are less talked about, but exchanges are just as difficult, says LIGA.net Larysa Fedusova, wife of the commander of the artillery unit of the 17th Separate Tank Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine named after Kostyantyn Pestushko.

The 17th Tank Brigade began to be remembered after it and its families, despite strong recommendations not to draw media attention to the defenders, began to organize rallies and address the media and government agencies.

"When I saw that the media began to actively cover the heroism of some of the defenders of Mariupol, while nothing was said about ours, I initially thought that this might even be for the better," she says. "But then they began to return from captivity those who were constantly being talked about by the media. At that time, it seemed as if no one needed my husband and his comrades. It was very painful, it was suspicious, it was annoying. The families of the defenders who were at the Ilyich plant started raising questions everywhere: "Why do you talk about the heroism of some defenders of Mariupol, but keep silent about others?"

She says that this activity is actually starting to show results – the soldiers of the 17th Brigade have begun to return. Larysa's husband returned from captivity in February 2025.

But to this day, many of our guys remain in captivity. There are guys who have been sentenced by the Russians to quite long terms. We have a medic sentenced to 27 years. Unfortunately, our convicts are not exchanged," says Fedusova.

There is indeed a problem with exchanges of defenders of the Mariupol garrison, she emphasizes. According to the respondents LIGA.net families of the defenders, at least 1,500 thousand of them remain in captivity. However, these are only approximate estimates by relatives. Officially, the exact number is not given. Among other things, for security reasons.

While all relatives recognize that much is being done to secure their release, they all point out that they would like to see more initiative and understanding from the state.

"Not just one brigade fought in Mariupol. "It was thanks to the Mariupol garrison that Kyiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions, and Kharkiv region survived and repelled the enemy at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. They deserve additional attention."

The Mariupol garrison is not the only category that is extremely difficult to negotiate, Yusov adds: "It's also officers, women in captivity, other representatives, including those of the SBU special forces, who are very difficult to work with."

How publicity affects exchanges

Media attention to the stories of prisoners of war is a double-edged sword. The command discourages relatives and friends from talking to the media in order not to harm them, not to worsen their treatment in captivity, and not to increase the "price" of the prisoner exchange.

When it comes to relatives, the hardest thing to do is to do nothing, Yusov admits: "But unnecessary movements, especially public ones, can be used by the enemy and only complicate the process of returning a prisoner home or staying in captivity. That is why we need clear interaction with the relevant structures, with the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, and work together to bring them back."

On the other hand, the family, which has not had any information about their defender or his condition for years, begins to think that total silence – including from the command of his unit – is a very convenient cover for the inaction of those responsible.

In some cases, these are not unfounded suspicions.

Obertas is convinced that publicity is a very individual factor of influence. "The outcome depends on the family of the soldier, the circumstances of the captivity, what he or she was doing before 2022, and the type of activity," she lists.

The opportunity to publicly draw attention to the problems of captivity saves her, says Yepifanova. "But this is my personal conviction," the lawyer clarifies. "Even those prisoners who have already returned have two points of view. Some say there is no need for publicity, they get punished for it. Others, who also went through the torture of Russian captivity, say that it was the publicity that saved them."

Obertas believes that civilians are the ones who will not be harmed by publicity.

"It is impossible to tie them to any combat task, to any unit," she lists. "It is difficult for us to fight for civilians, there are no legal ways to free civilians from there, because they should not have been there in the first place.

At the same time, both relatives and representatives of the Coordination Center agree that peaceful, constructive actions and advocacy tours aimed at reminding people about the prisoners can help with exchanges. They help families unite and continue to scale their activities abroad together, says Maryna.

Such actions also highlight to the world really painful issues that need to be addressed urgently, such as the issue of Ukrainian conscripts held captive by Russians or the torture of Ukrainian prisoners, Epifanova adds:

"When we [relatives of the prisoners] started going everywhere – to the UN, the ICRC, the Council of Europe – and demanded that our prisoners be talked about, we achieved a lot. Ukraine's silence leads to concrete decisions."

But this effect is cumulative. It is not immediately visible.

Yes, thanks to the efforts of relatives of captured and released PACE defenders (only in 2024!) decided a resolution on the exchange and release of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians. In particular, the resolution documents the systematic torture, rape, and ill-treatment of Ukrainians in the territory of the aggressor state and the temporarily occupied territories. According to Yepifanova, the very fact of its adoption has become scandalous for Europeans. And they are very sensitive to scandals.

"International decisions are a tool of direct pressure. Our goal is to exert pressure and damage the reputation with concrete facts. We want Russia to be documented as an aggressor state that steals, tortures and kills. This is necessary not only for history," she says.

Such resolutions have a direct impact on the current situation, Epifanova continues. "There are still many politicians in Europe who believe that 'everything is not so clear with Russia, it has a great culture, and Ukraine is not a saint either.

Russia's reputation is a real political struggle. A lot of work needs to be done to break the image of the "mysterious Russian soul" in the minds of Europeans," she emphasizes, "especially since Russians spend a lot of money to support it.

Western audiences are ready to hear dry stories with indisputable facts, while emotions are difficult to perceive, says Maryna, the wife of a missing military officer: "When you convey information about the torture of prisoners in a less emotional way, but with hard facts, they begin to understand that they need to react to it."

Such activity also requires a lot of money and resources from the families of the defenders, so they can organize large-scale actions only twice a year. And every time, the Russians make a lot of effort to drown out their voice. For example, by organizing parallel actions.

However, the actions of the families of Ukrainian defenders continue, and their continuity creates a general atmosphere of importance of the issue of prisoners of war and civilian hostages in Russian captivity, Maryna is convinced. "This reinforces the feeling that this issue should not be forgotten and that we should help solve it," she explains.

What happens after the exchange

Immediately after the exchange, the defenders are taken to a hospital for a medical examination. On the way, they receive a "backpack of the released" – a set of basic things they may need in the first days and a smartphone with a SIM card to contact their families, read the news and get a little bit of an idea of what is happening in the world.

The first to be released are also provided with information about the situation in Ukraine.

"Conventionally, it's a short lecture: that Ukraine is not divided between Russia and Poland, no one has left Kyiv en masse, the city is not dead, the dollar is so-and-so, the president is so-and-so," says Obertas, "just so that people can get a realistic picture in their heads.

They also talk to a psychologist: "It depends on how lucky you are."

This is followed by at least a week of quarantine and a military hospital commission.

At the same time, counterintelligence measures are being taken. The released defenders also communicate with representatives of the coordination headquarters, the police, the GUR and the SBU.

Separately, off the record, he clarifies LIGA.net a representative of the Security Service, the released defense lawyers are helping to identify specific Russians who were involved in the abuse of Ukrainian citizens in Russian prisons.

The information collected is the basis for serving suspicion notices to Russian officials and subsequent prosecution. For example, the head of the Olenivska (Volnovakha) colony, Serhiy Yevsiukov, was served with a notice of suspicion in absentia of involvement in the torture of about 100 AFU servicemen in July 2023. on December 9, 2024, he was killed in a car explosion in Donetsk.

The released defenders are also shown photos and profiles of missing persons. They indicate who they have seen during their captivity.

"That is why the relatives of our defenders should not immediately attack the guys who were released from captivity with portraits of their defenders," emphasizes Obertas.

At the moment of release, defense lawyers are confused. So when they later work with these questionnaires, it is difficult for them to remember: a person's face looks familiar because they saw him or her on a poster the day before yesterday, or a year and a half ago in a Russian colony.

"I understand why the families want to talk to them," she says, "but in this format – showing portraits almost at the moment of release, when people are still disoriented, before the special services work with them – is a harmful practice.

During the same period, the released prisoners are helped to restore their documents and phone numbers.

The Coordination Center separately explains to families that they should not rush to feed their defenders right away – they need time to restore a normal diet. Other useful tips – for example, that when changing the place of treatment, the epicrisis should indicate the transfer from one medical facility to another, because immediately after discharge the defender loses part of the payments – are passed on by word of mouth.

Civil society organizations periodically conduct trainings and webinars for families to explain what happens to a person after release from captivity, how to establish relationships with them, and what manifestations they may have to face. Information can be found in family communities and on the pages of the Coordination Center.

The further algorithm of actions depends on the unit and structure of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in which the released defender serves. There are no universal guidelines that would be officially and centrally communicated to all families.