Ukraine returns 84 people from captivity: some of them had been in captivity for more than 10 years – photos

On Thursday, August 14, Ukraine returned 84 people – military and civilians – from Russian captivity. This was reported by and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

According to the Head of State, almost all of the returned military and civilians need medical care and significant rehabilitation.

Among the released civilians are those who had been held by the Russians since 2014, 2016 and 2017. The military who defended Mariupol were also brought home.

The Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War clarified that this is the 67th exchange of prisoners. Within its framework, 33 military and 51 civilian Ukrainians were released.

The peculiarity of this exchange is that it was possible to release civilian and military Ukrainians who were detained in the temporarily occupied territories before the full-scale invasion and illegally sentenced to long prison terms of 10 to 18 years. One of the released prisoners spent 4013 days in captivity – he was enslaved in the Donetsk region in 2014.

Ukrainians captured and convicted by the occupiers from 2016 to 2021 are also returning home. Among those released are three women from Donetsk and Luhansk regions. One of them is a primary school teacher who was imprisoned in 2019.

Among the released civilian Ukrainians is a 27-year-old man who was illegally imprisoned by Russians in 2016. He was only 18 years old at the time.

In addition to civilians, defenders from the Mariupol garrison, the Navy and the State Border Guard Service are also returning home. 10 officers have been rescued from captivity.

Two pairs of brothers, who were held in Russian captivity since March and April 2022, return from Russian captivity. Most of the released civilians and soldiers have health problems and disabilities.

The youngest released was 26 years old, the oldest was 74 years old, of which the last seven years (since 2018) he had been in a Russian prison.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko added that among those released was a colonel, a border guard from the Mariupol garrison who had been fighting since 2014. He was wounded but continued to defend Ukraine. The occupiers held him for a long time in Olenivka.

• on August 3, 2025, Zelensky said that work on the lists was underway in preparation for a new prisoner exchange.
• On August 8, it was reported that the Russian Foreign Ministry had issued another fake statement that Ukraine "deliberately does not take 1,000 of its prisoners from Russia" and that delays in the exchanges were allegedly due to "Kyiv's immorality".