MOSCOW – Russia’s Defense Ministry said 270 Russian servicemen returned from Ukrainian captivity on Friday in an exchange for 270 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The returned Russian personnel were in Belarus, where Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova was working with them, according to the ministry’s statement supplied for this report.
The ministry dated the exchange October 23. It did not identify the released personnel, disclose how long they had been held or describe their condition.
The announcement accounts for 540 military prisoners across the two sides. That total comes from the Russian ministry’s figures, not an independently verified list of those released.
Earlier on Friday, Belarus’s state news agency BelTA reported that Gomel would host a prisoner exchange and the return of civilians. It also reported a meeting between Lantratova and Ukraine’s parliamentary human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, at the Novaya Guta checkpoint. BelTA’s account did not give a completed prisoner count or specify how many civilians would return.
The sources reviewed for this draft did not include a Ukrainian announcement confirming the completed 270-for-270 exchange. The Russian statement also did not explain whether the civilian returns mentioned by BelTA were part of the same arrangement.
Friday’s announcement followed a separate transfer of fallen soldiers’ bodies at Novaya Guta on Thursday. Russia returned 252 bodies to Ukraine, while Ukraine handed over 25 to Russia, Meduza reported, citing RBC and BelTA. Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War confirmed that exchange. Those figures concern the dead and are not included in Friday’s prisoner totals.
