According to the data from the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, on December 30, 2024, the 11th prisoner swap took place, as a result of which 189 Ukrainians were returned from captivity. This is one of the largest exchanges conducted since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Released: 87 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (including 17 members of the Territorial Defense), 43 National Guard troops, 33 border guards, and 24 sailors from the Navy. They defended Ukraine on various fronts, including in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson regions, as well as on Snake Island, in Mariupol, and in the area of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Additionally, the exchange included military personnel who had been captured in the Kursk region. It should be emphasized that two civilians were also returned.
The Coordination Headquarters notes that some of the returned citizens had been in Russian captivity for more than two and a half years.
The exchange took place with the mediation of the United Arab Emirates. The Russian side also reported the release of 150 of its prisoners of war in Belarus, who are currently being transported to Russia.
It should be reminded that since the beginning of the full-scale war, 3,956 Ukrainians have been freed from captivity, of which 1,358 were freed in 2024.
At the same time, Russia continues to grossly violate the Geneva Convention regulating the treatment of prisoners of war. In particular, on December 22, 2024, it became known that five Ukrainian prisoners of war had been executed by Russian soldiers in the Donetsk region. This frightening trend has intensified since November 2023, when cases of inhumane treatment of prisoners began to take on a more systematic nature. In 2024, Ukraine officially confirmed the execution of 109 Ukrainian prisoners of war, which is a clear violation of international norms and human rights by Russia.