March 6, Pozirk. Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war via Belarus on March 6, with 300 soldiers returning to each country in the second swap in two days.
“Three hundred more Ukrainian defenders are returning home from Russian captivity,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel. “We have also managed to liberate two civilian Ukrainians today.”
Among the exchanged POWs are officers of the Armed Forces, National Guard and the State Border Guard Service who defended Ukraine in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces and in the city of Mariupol. A majority of them had been in captivity for more than a year, and some were taken prisoner as far back as 2022.
Zelensky thanked the United States for facilitating the exchange.
Moscow said that Russian soldiers receive mental counseling and medical assistance in Belarus.
This is the third exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine this year. As many as 157 soldiers from each side were exchanged on February 5 and 200 on March 5.
Belarus was involved in 18 exchanges in 2025 and 12 in 2024.
