About 20% of Russian POWs surrender voluntarily, replenishing Ukraine’s ‘exchange fund’

He said this in an interview with the Radio Liberty project Krym.Realii.

"We have much fewer POWs than the Russian Federation. This is true. Because in the first days of the invasion, the Russian Federation took a terrible number of hostages here, including civilians, retired law enforcement officers, just people who they thought were scary to them, and so on. That's why our numbers, unfortunately, are lower. We need to understand this. And, unfortunately, I think we will not be able to catch up with those numbers," said Kyrylo Budanov.

At the same time, the intelligence chief refused to disclose the exact amount of the so-called ‘exchange fund’, saying it was a state secret.

Regarding Russian prisoners of war, Budanov said that about 20% of them surrender voluntarily.

"It's about 20% for sure. It's just there: I'm scared, I don't want anything," he said.

• On August 7, 22 more soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces returned home from Russian captivity.

• During the full-scale war, Ukraine managed to return 2,576 citizens from Russian captivity, including 144 civilians.