Around Ukraine's Independence Day, ten servicemen long listed as missing in action came home through Belarus in a special exchange stage — two had been unaccounted for since 2024, the rest since 2025.
Ten Ukrainian servicemen whose families and fellow soldiers had spent years not knowing whether they were alive have finally come home via Belarus. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the news, describing it as a distinct "special stage" in Ukraine's ongoing work to bring prisoners of war home.
The group includes soldiers from the Armed Forces and the National Guard of Ukraine — sergeants, privates and sailors who had defended the Donetsk sector. Two had been missing since 2024; the other eight since 2025. "All of them had been considered missing in action," Zelensky said. "And it is very important that we managed to bring them back."
Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, which handles cases like this one, confirmed the details of the exchange. Zelensky added that no one still held captive is forgotten: "We remember each and every person who remains in captivity. We are searching for every name. And we will do everything to free them." For families who had gone months or years without a single word, simply learning that a missing relative is alive and coming home is already the turning point — long before he actually walks through the door.
The exchange happened right around Ukraine's 35th Independence Day, a date the country marked once again under missile and drone fire. That contrast — grim news from the front alongside living people coming home in the same stretch of days — says something about this stage of the war: even on the hardest days, there are moments worth marking. In the minibus on the way home, men who not long ago had no idea whether they'd ever see their families again are smiling and flashing peace signs.
This exchange is one link in a longer chain that has kept moving in recent weeks, even as the broader ceasefire negotiating track remains effectively frozen. Prisoner exchanges remain one of the few mechanisms between Ukraine and Russia that still deliver a concrete, tangible result for specific families.
Behind every such headline are real people and real families. Volunteers Support Ukraine continues helping civilians and service members affected by the war in whatever way its available resources allow — whichever corner of the country this week's good news happens to come from.
