Defence Intelligence of Ukraine: more than half of «Azovstal» defenders have already been returned from captivity

Ukrainian soldiers return from captivity. Photo: Telegram/Volodymyr Zelenskyy

The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine has announced that 1279 Ukrainian servicemen who defended «Azovstal» during the battle for Mariupol have been returned from Russian captivity. Among them are 455 soldiers of the «Azov» regiment.

This was reported by Andrii Yusov, deputy head of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, on the air of «Radio Liberty».

According to him, this is half of the approximately 2,500 defenders who were held there in 2022. Andrii Yusov stressed that this dynamic is positive compared to other units, but every figure is a human life, and statistics cannot replace relatives.

During the last large-scale exchange of «1000 for 1000», representatives of 46 different units were released, some of which had not been included in the lists before. At the same time, he warned that excessive media attention to names or units could harm the process, as Russian intelligence services could use this information against Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has already returned more than 6,000 citizens in 65 exchanges, both military and civilian. Among them are border guards, terrorist defence fighters, intelligence officers and other categories of military for whom a separate struggle is being waged.

«These are not second-class citizens — they are soldiers, they are defenders. Among them, there are few special forces, in particular Ukrainian intelligence officers, for whom there is a separate big fight. There are also few representatives of other difficult categories — convicted soldiers, illegally imprisoned women, officers and combatants whom the enemy does not return on principle,» said Andrii Yusov.

It should be noted that as of May 2025, at least 206 Ukrainian prisoners of war have died in Russian captivity since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.