On Wednesday, July 17, 95 prisoners of war were returned to Ukraine as part of an exchange with Russia.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky reported on this.

The exchange took place with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates.

“We continue bringing our people home. Another 95 defenders have been released from Russian captivity. These are soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and border guards,” Zelensky said.

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported that all of the released POWs were men: 88 privates and sergeants and seven officers.

Among the rescued servicemen are:

• 49 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (including a member of the “air bridge” who volunteered to fly a helicopter to Azovstal to help the units blocked there, and two of the Air Force);
• 21 soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine;
• 10 soldiers of the Ukrainian Navy;
• 7 soldiers of the Territorial Defense Forces;
• 5 soldiers of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine;
• 2 soldiers of the State Transport Special Service;
• one defender of the voluntary formation of the territorial community.

The defenders who have been released include 23 who were defending Mariupol (thirteen of them were Azovstal defenders), 41 who fought in the Donetsk sector, nine in the Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia sectors, and three in the Kherson and Kharkiv sectors.

One of the liberated sailors was in the Kyiv region at the time of the full-scale Russian invasion and immediately joined the defense of his village against the Russian invaders as part of the Makariv Territorial Defense Forces.

While providing humanitarian aid to residents of the local community, he was captured by Russian Buryat soldiers.

Many returning Ukrainian soldiers suffer from the consequences of injuries and have chronic diseases that require long-term treatment, the Coordination Headquarters reported.

Most of them had been held captive by the Russian Federation since 2022. Those released also include a defender who was considered missing.

In June, ten more of our people were returned from Russian captivity.