Ukraine says 185 service members and one civilian return from Russian captivity

Ukraine said Friday that 185 service members and one civilian were returning home from Russian captivity, in the latest publicly announced prisoner return during the war.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on his official Telegram channel that the 185 “defenders” were coming back on Friday and that one civilian was also returning with them. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence separately said on its official Telegram channel that 185 Ukrainians had returned from Russian captivity that day, providing official confirmation of the military figure cited by Zelensky.

According to Zelensky, the returnees include personnel from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard and the State Border Service. He said the group includes rank-and-file troops, sergeants and officers. Zelensky said they had fought in Mariupol and at the Azovstal steel plant, a key battleground early in Russia’s full-scale invasion, as well as on the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kyiv and Kursk fronts.

Zelensky also said some of those returning had been held since 2022, meaning they were coming home after years in captivity. The official announcements did not provide further details about the individuals, including their identities or condition after release.

The return is the latest in a series of publicly announced prisoner exchanges and releases between Ukraine and Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. For comparison, Ukraine said 205 defenders returned on May 15, 2026, and 193 defenders returned on April 24, 2026.

Returned prisoners typically undergo medical examinations, rehabilitation and administrative processing after release, though no facility, intake site or other logistical arrangements were confirmed in the official statements issued Friday.

No public master list of names or fuller arrival details had been released in the cited Ukrainian official announcements.