UKRAINE, Jun. 5 — Ukraine returned 186 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) from the Russian captivity as part of the 75th POWs’ exchange with Russia, reported the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

The headquarters also managed to return one Ukrainian civilian, whom the Russians had been holding captive since 2022.

Among the released people are soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including the Ukrainian Navy, Ground Forces, Air Assault Forces, Territorial Defense Forces, Special Operations Forces, and the Military Law-Enforcement Service, as well as servicemen of the National Guard of Ukraine and the State Border Guard Service.

The Russians took more than half of these people captive in 2022, some of them during the defense of Mariupol, said the headquarters.

Among the POWs exchanged is a participant in a unique helicopter operation — the airlift to Azovstal. At that time, the Ukrainian military, with the support of intelligence services, carried out a series of flights to Mariupol, surrounded by Russians, including to the Azovstal plant, to deliver ammunition and medical supplies and to evacuate the wounded.

The POWs released today fought on the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kyiv, and Kursk axes.

The headquarters said that the youngest POW is 26 years old and the oldest is 62.

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