Almost 500 Ukrainian Women Remain in Captivity as Russia Halts Exchanges

A total of 494 Ukrainian women, including both civilians and military personnel, remain in Russian captivity following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian side has recently shown a complete unwillingness to include these women in prisoner exchanges, as reported by Hromadske on July 1.

Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, emphasized that Moscow continues to block the release of these individuals despite ongoing efforts from the Ukrainian side to secure their return.

"We have 494 heroines to this day — both civilian women and female service members — who are in Russian captivity. Why the Russians do not want to return the Ukrainian heroines, I do not understand. We had a special exchange with Moskalkova once, that was October 2022. Back then, the Russians returned 108 of our heroines to us. That is it, after that — one or two. Lately, they do not return any at all, even though I insist," Lubinets said.

The situation marks a significant stagnation in the return of female captives compared to earlier stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Aside from the single large-scale swap in late 2022, recent exchange processes have failed to secure the release of civilian and military women on a broader scale.

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War in Ukraine

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On May 27, 2026, the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) of Ukraine announced that work on the next stage of a prisoner exchange in the “1000-for-1000” format was ongoing.

Speaking at a press conference, HUR spokesperson Andrii Yusov explained that the upcoming swap would be a "mixed" process, encompassing a wide range of Ukrainian prisoners still held in Russian captivity, including those detained since 2022, women, severely ill and wounded individuals, and personnel from various military branches.

The announcement followed a previous exchange on May 15, which marked the first phase of the large-scale framework and resulted in the return of 205 Ukrainian servicemen, many of whom had spent close to four years in captivity after defending Mariupol.

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