115 Ukrainian soldiers returned from Russian captivity, Zelensky confirms.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Aug.

24 that 115 Ukrainian soldiers were brought back from Russian captivity. Soldiers from the National Guard, army, navy, and State Border Guard Service were among those brought back. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said that the POWs included Azovstal defenders, the soldiers who defended Ukraine's last stronghold in occupied Mariupol, and National Guardsmen stationed at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Other military personnel who defended Kyiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson oblasts were also brought back. "We remember everyone. We are searching for them and making every effort to bring them all back," Zelensky said.

Lubinets said that many of the POWs brought back in the latest swap have "serious health conditions." Zelensky thanked his "team and partners, the UAE, for bringing our people back home." Arab countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia have repeatedly taken up the role of mediators in prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Russia.

It was the 55th such prisoner exchange, said Lubinets. In total, 3,520 Ukrainian POWs have been brought back home since the beginning of the full-scale war, he added.

Ukrainian forces storm penal colony in Kursk Oblast where Ukrainian prisoners were held, human rights activists say The seizure of the penal colony will be an important step in documenting war crimes committed by Russia against prisoners of war, Media Initiative for Human Rights reported on Aug.

23.