Prisoner Exchanges between Russia and Ukraine Decline Significantly Since March, Another Sign of Moscow’s Toughening Position

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 4 – Over the last seven months, there have been only nine prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine involving 587 captives, figures significantly lower than in the previous year when there were 40 such exchanges involving more than 3300 soldiers, according to the Vyorstka news agency.

            Not only have there been fewer such exchanges per month but the last such exchange publicly announced took place on August 7. That means that there has now been the longest interval between them since Putin’s expanded war began (verstka.media/chislo-obmenov-plennymi-mezhdu-rossiey-i-ukrainoy-znachitelno-sokratilos).

            While Kyiv has continued to report on the number of prisoners returned each time, Moscow has not. In fact, for the past seven months, it has released figures for only five of the nine public exchanges.