No quick reunion with family: what really happens to Russian POWs after exchanges — Coordination HQ

The latest exchange under agreements reached earlier in Istanbul took place on Aug. 24. Afterward, officials said, all the Russian prisoners were moved to barracks of military unit No. 61899, the 27th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade in the village of Mosrentgen, Moscow Oblast. The site serves as a holding facility for exchanged POWs.

“Although Russia’s Defense Ministry releases short propaganda clips showing prisoners speaking to relatives by phone directly from buses, in reality once they arrive at the barracks they have no contact with the outside world,” the Coordination Headquarters said.

During interrogations by the FSB, the soldiers live in conditions resembling prison, officials explained. Even after that, a quick reunion with their families is out of the question. Within three to four weeks, they are sent back to the front. “They have no rights. Those who are lucky enough may be captured again,” I Want to Live reported.

As an example, the group cited the cases of Saktaagai Shagaa and Dmytro Ivanov, two Russian occupiers exchanged in June. By July and August, both were again captured near Vovchansk. They were “thrown back into the meat grinder” almost immediately after the exchange, with no chance to see their families.

For the Kremlin, POWs are a resource and a bargaining chip against Ukraine. “Just as Russia rejects peace initiatives and continues the war and deaths, it also uses prisoners of war as leverage, refusing an ‘all-for-all’ exchange,” the Coordination Headquarters said.

On Aug. 24, Ukrainian servicemen from the Armed Forces, National Guard, and State Border Guard Service, along with civilians, were returned from Russian captivity. Most had been held since 2022.

Among those freed were former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolaienko, abducted by Russian forces on April 18, 2022, and journalist Dmytro Khiliuk, seized in March 2022 in Kyiv Oblast.