Zelenskyy: Ukraine working to recover 1,000 POWs from Russia, lists in progress

He said National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov had spoken with Vladimir Medinsky, a top aide to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, about the next phase of prisoner exchanges.

“We want to bring back 1,000 people; the teams are working on the lists,” Zelenskyy said.

Asked about possible future meetings at the delegation level, he added that Ukraine would be willing to meet Russian representatives “even tomorrow” — but warned that empty talks serving the aggressor’s interests “do not bring peace any closer.”

“We’ve read all their memos. We know them well. And they’ve read ours — they’ve studied them very carefully. They know what they want, and we know what we want,” the president said.

Zelenskyy expressed hope that international pressure would be strong enough to push for negotiations with Russia at the leaders’ level.

On Sept. 19, Umerov also said talks with Russia on humanitarian issues were ongoing, including prisoner exchanges.

On Aug. 24, a swap brought home Ukrainian service members from the Armed Forces, National Guard, and State Border Guard Service, as well as civilians – among them former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko. A previous exchange took place on Aug. 14.

Back on July 28, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had returned 5,857 people from Russian captivity since the start of the full-scale invasion, with another 555 recovered outside formal exchanges. More than 1,000 soldiers were returned under agreements reached in Istanbul.