Ukraine has secured the release of 84 soldiers and civilians from Russian captivity in the latest prisoner exchange with Moscow, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Thursday.

The swap, which saw 84 Russian service members released in return, follows a series of earlier exchanges agreed during talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul from May to July.

"Among the civilians released today are those who had been held by the Russians since 2014, 2016, and 2017," Zelensky said. "Among the military personnel released today are the defenders of Mariupol." He added that nearly all of those freed require medical care and rehabilitation.

According to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the newly freed group includes 33 military service members and 51 civilians, some of whom had been captured before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Several had been handed prison sentences of up to 18 years. One Ukrainian endured 4,013 days—more than 11 years—in Russian captivity.

Those released range in age from 26 to 74. Among them are three women from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and a man imprisoned in 2016 at the age of 18.

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the exchange, describing it as a balanced swap of 84 prisoners on each side.

The exchange comes just one day ahead of a high-profile summit in Alaska between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a meeting Washington says is aimed at advancing efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Although peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow earlier this year failed to produce a breakthrough in halting hostilities, they did yield agreements on further prisoner exchanges. Zelensky announced earlier this month that both sides were preparing to exchange 1,200 prisoners of war under the terms of the third round of talks in Istanbul on July 23.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has secured the release of over 6,400 of its citizens from Russian captivity, with 5,857 freed through negotiated exchanges, according to official figures. (ILKHA)