Russia has forcibly mobilized 46,327 Ukrainians from the temporarily occupied territories, said Dmytro Usov, secretary of the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Ukrinform reported, BTA reported.
"We have established that 46,327 of our fellow citizens from the occupied territories, from the annexed Crimea, have been forcibly mobilized. These people are fighting against us," Usov said.
According to the Ukrainian authority, the Russians in the Donetsk region have mobilized 5,368 Ukrainians, in the Luhansk region - 4,650, in the Zaporizhia region - 560, and in the Kherson region - 478. In Crimea, 35,272 Ukrainians were mobilized, and in Sevastopol - 5,368.
These numbers cover the period from February 2022 to July 2025. The data was collected by Ukrainian military intelligence and confirmed by the Russian side, Usov noted.
According to him, 16% of the prisoners of war held by Ukraine are Ukrainian citizens, with 6% of them from Crimea. The Secretary of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War also stated that a bill to prohibit the return of Ukrainians from the temporarily occupied territories in the exchange of prisoners of war is about to be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament).
"We must make the right decision when the Russian side requests an exchange, because Ukrainians are being exchanged for Ukrainians. We must do everything to ensure that they are not returned to Russia, but remain in Ukraine," Usov stressed.
He added that local courts have already issued acquittals in some cases involving Ukrainians held captive in Ukraine. "And we are waiting for them to be released from the POW camps," Usov said.
According to the coordination headquarters, there has recently been an increase in cases in which Russian special services contact the families of Ukrainian prisoners of war and try to attract them to cooperation.