Budanov Announces Major POW Exchange With Russia as Early as Next Week

Ukraine and Russia are reportedly preparing another major prisoner of war (POW) exchange, according to the head of the Presidential Office, Kyrylo Budanov Sunday, Sept. 27. The exchange could take place as early as next week, Budanov told Novyny.LIVE on the sidelines of the national “Golden Hands” award ceremony.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “It should happen very quickly, in the near future. I think, within the next week,” Budanov said according to RBC-Ukraine, without providing any additional information regarding the possible date or scale of the exchange. Moscow had not independently confirmed the planned swap at the time of the report. A rare channel of dialogue Prisoner exchanges have remained one of the few areas where Kyiv and Moscow continue to cooperate, even as broader peace efforts stall, according to Budanov on Aug. 29. He also said that the war in Ukraine will most certainly continue through the winter, dismissing hopes of a near-term ceasefire and saying that Russia’s refusal to stop the war made any immediate freeze “unrealistic.” Previous swaps The last known return took place on Aug. 24, when Ukraine brought home 10 servicemen from captivity via Belarus, according to RBC-Ukraine. The release was carried out as a special stage of an exchange agreed between the two sides. All 10 had fought in the Donetsk sector and had previously been listed as missing, two of them since 2024 and eight since 2025. Other Topics of Interest UK Police Call In Bomb Disposal Team Near US-Used Air Base Several men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offenses, and residents of Whelford were evacuated, Gloucestershire Police said. Just two weeks earlier, on Aug. 10, Ukraine and Russia exchanged 103 prisoners each. On Ukraine’s side, the released POWs included troops from the Armed Forces (AFU), Border Guard Service, and National Guard who fought in Mariupol and across several other regions. In April, Budanov announced a new exchange was being prepared shortly after Ukraine brought home 182 people in its 72nd prisoner swap. That group included 175 military personnel and seven civilians, many of whom had been in captivity since 2022, among them defenders of Mariupol and the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. At the time, Budanov said a larger group could not be returned right away because of what he described as bureaucratic delays on the Russian side. Foreign citizens dragged into Russia’s war According to Ukraine’s “I Want to Live” project – which helps Russian soldiers surrender – one in 10 POWs held in Ukraine is a foreign citizen. As of September, Russian POWs in Ukraine include citizens of 55 countries. Nearly 29,000 foreign nationals have signed contracts with Russia’s armed forces since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022, pointing to the growing international outreach of Russia’s military recruitment which deliberately targets economically vulnerable people from Third World countries. Russia had also signed a defense pact with North Korea on June 19, 2024, with both countries officially recognizing North Korean troop deployments in April 2025. Since then, North Korean troops have continued to be deployed or rotated through Russia. Ukrainian military intelligence estimates that around 25,000 North Korean troops have served in Russia so far. On July 29, Zelensky warned that Russia is preparing to receive 30,000 additional North Korean troops and more ballistic missile launchers. In August, Kyiv had warned of Pyongyang’s fresh troop deployments to Russia, numbering 8,500. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.