In 2026, Ukraine is taking more than 100 more Russians prisoner each month on average than Russia is taking Ukrainians

⚡️In 2026, Ukraine is taking more than 100 more Russians prisoner each month on average than Russia is taking Ukrainians

Back in 2023, Russian propaganda was churning out fakes claiming that “more than 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers are in Russian captivity” and that “10,000 Ukrainians surrendered in the summer of 2023 alone.” In January 2024, Putin claimed that the ratio of Russian to Ukrainian prisoners was supposedly “one to ten.”

At the same time, the reality on the ground says the opposite. Since mid-2023, Ukraine has begun capturing more Russian servicemen than Russia captures Ukrainian ones. As a result, in both 2024 and 2025, Ukraine’s exchange fund grew more than Russia’s.

In 2026, the gap widened even further. In the first eight months of the year, 858 more Russian servicemen ended up in Ukrainian captivity than Ukrainians ended up in Russian captivity. On average, 107 more people each month.

As of early October, more Russians have been taken prisoner in 2026 than have returned to Russia through exchanges over the same period. At the same time, Ukraine has brought back more Ukrainians through exchanges than have been captured.

How is Ukraine managing this?

First of all, thanks to Ukrainian servicemen who risk their lives to replenish the exchange fund. Another factor is that Ukraine works systematically in the information space, showing Russian soldiers that surrender means preserving their lives and being treated normally. Russians often surrender more willingly on their own.

Since September 2022, the “I Want to Live” project has been explaining to Russian servicemen how to surrender safely and what awaits them afterward. The project’s website alone has been visited by more than 50 million people. Interviews with Russian prisoners of war, information about detention conditions, and stories of those who survived thanks to captivity are widely distributed to Russian audiences.

Ukraine also encourages its soldiers to take Russians prisoner alive: additional bonuses are provided for this.

It is a whole system: Ukrainian servicemen have additional motivation to take the enemy alive; Russians in captivity are held in normal, humane conditions; and information about this is delivered through different channels to Russian soldiers themselves.

This directly affects the size of Ukraine’s exchange fund, and therefore the ability to bring Ukrainians back from Russian captivity.

After the start of the full-scale invasion, many non-combatants ended up in Russian captivity: police officers, National Guardsmen who were guarding the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, rescuers, journalists, local deputies, and ordinary civilian residents of occupied territories. Russia now holds them as hostages, returning them in exchange for its own prisoners of war.

That is why every Russian serviceman who ends up in Ukrainian captivity is an opportunity to bring home another Ukrainian defender or civilian hostage.

➡️ Save your life and surrender: t.me/kak\sdatsya\bot The "I Want to Live" project on social media:😎 FB 🕊 Twitter 📹 YouTube 🥳TikTok🕊Instagram📞Viber 🏢WhatsApp (backup)