Conflicts · Kyiv and Moscow
Ukraine and Russia each swap 270 prisoners of war in third exchange stage
Kyiv received 261 military personnel and nine civilians on Friday, 23 October, while Moscow's defence ministry confirmed its side of the swap and said the 270 Russian prisoners had been held in Belarus.
In brief
Ukraine and Russia each exchanged 270 prisoners of war on Friday, 23 October, in the third stage of a process that began on 19 August.
Zelenskyy said the returnees included defenders from several front sectors, and five of them were believed to have been killed in the Olenivka attack in July 2022.
Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters credited the United States and the UAE with facilitating the release of Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old English teacher from Izium.
On Thursday, 22 October, Putin said Russia was ready to resume trilateral contacts, while the ISW argued in a report dated 22 October 2026 that the Kremlin was seeking economic concessions.
- 19 AugThe prisoner exchange process begins
- 22 OctPutin says Russia is ready to resume trilateral contacts
- 23 OctThird stage: each side exchanges 270 prisoners of war
Third stage of the exchange
Ukraine and Russia each handed over 270 prisoners of war on Friday, 23 October, in the third stage of a process that began on 19 August. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement that Kyiv received 261 military personnel and nine civilians. Moscow's defence ministry confirmed its side of the swap in a separate statement and said the 270 Russian prisoners had been held in Belarus. The latest wave followed another round of negotiations in Oslo and St. Petersburg and came soon after those talks ended. The deal was brokered by the administration of US President Donald Trump in May, when Zelenskyy said the process was expected to involve 2,000 prisoners of war in total.
Who came home
Zelenskyy said the returnees included defenders from several front sectors, among them Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv and Chernihiv.
“Most of those released are warriors who defended Ukraine in Mariupol.”
He added that many of the returnees had been convicted illegally in Russia, and that five of them were believed to have been killed in the Olenivka attack in July 2022. Authorities said most of the military personnel handed over had been detained since 2022. Some had been captured earlier, in 2018 and 2020, during the fighting in Donbas.
- Military personnel
- 261 people
- Civilians
- 9 people
Data from the article text
Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War credited the United States and the United Arab Emirates with facilitating the swap. The headquarters singled out the release of Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old English teacher from Izium. Its statement said he had been unlawfully convicted by Russian courts and subjected to torture. The release shows the role that Washington and Abu Dhabi have played as intermediaries in the exchanges.
Talks and the Kremlin's position
On Thursday, 22 October, Vladimir Putin said Russia had agreed it was ready to resume trilateral contacts between Moscow, Kyiv and Washington. That statement followed a conversation with the US envoy Steve Witkoff and a decision by Trump to ease sanctions on Russia. Trump faces pressure over high energy prices ahead of the US midterm elections. The US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in a report dated 22 October 2026 that the Kremlin's apparent interest in negotiations was not aimed at ending the war, but at securing further economic concessions from the United States. Verstka, an independent Russian outlet, reported that sources close to the Kremlin did not expect the new attempt to bring an early end to the war, though one source indicated Moscow was interested in resolving a number of economic questions. According to Western military and Eastern European experts, a peace treaty on Moscow's terms would amount to nothing less than full control of Ukraine.