Easter Bells and Broken Bodies: 175 Ukrainian Prisoners Come Home as Fragile Ceasefire Holds

In a moment of holy irony, while church bells across Ukraine and Russia tolled for Orthodox Easter, a different kind of liberation unfolded at the border. Ukraine and Russia exchanged 175 prisoners of war each on Sunday, the largest swap in months, timed to coincide with a fragile 32-hour ceasefire marking the sacred holiday. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced that Ukraine had brought home 175 servicemen and seven civilians, most of whom had been held in Russian captivity since 2022. Reuters TV footage captured the raw emotion: buses arriving to a roaring welcome, relatives clutching photos of still-missing loved ones, and some freed soldiers so weak from their ordeal that they could not walk unaided, transported instead by ambulance. “This is a real success, a very significant achievement,” said Andrii Yusov, a Ukrainian defence intelligence representative. “It is very hard to imagine what these people have been through during that time.” The exchange, mediated by the United Arab Emirates, also saw Russia receive back 175 servicemen and seven civilians from the Kursk region.

Yet even amid the tear-streaked reunions, the shadow of war lingered. Svitlana Shavkun, holding back tears as she watched others embrace their freed relatives, told Reuters she is still waiting for her brother, held captive since December 2023. “I have been waiting for two years and four months,” she said. “I am waiting with all my heart.” The Easter ceasefire—beginning Saturday at 4 p.m. and ending Sunday at midnight—offered only the briefest respite in a conflict now in its fourth year. Zelenskiy made clear that Ukraine would not respond militarily if Russia honored the pause, adding: “A ceasefire at Easter could also become the beginning of real movement toward peace—our side has made the corresponding proposal.” But with U.S.-brokered peace talks stalled over territorial disputes, and with hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers still unaccounted for, the swap felt less like an ending and more like a reminder: that every prisoner returned is a miracle, and every miracle is shadowed by the names of those who remain behind. For one holy weekend, the guns fell silent. The crosses and the ambulances arrived together. And Easter meant, for 175 families, a resurrection of their own.