REPORT: One hundred and sixty faces — the 76th prisoner exchange and the dignity Russia cannot steal

REPORT: One hundred and sixty faces — the 76th prisoner exchange and the dignity Russia cannot steal

Introduction: a Friday that counts double

June 26, 2026: a number and one hundred and sixty lives

On Friday, June 26, 2026, somewhere at the border between two worlds at war, one hundred and sixty people crossed a threshold separating their captivity from their freedom. One hundred and sixty Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, held in Russian penitentiary facilities whose conditions have been documented by international organizations as constituting inhumane treatment, returned to Ukraine. This was not a peace agreement. This was not the end of the war. This was the 76th prisoner exchange since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 — one exchange among many in a long series, and yet each exchange is unique because each has a face, a story, a family that was waiting.

This report does not pretend to tell each of those one hundred and sixty stories — I have no access to these individuals, their families, or their files. What it can do is place this exchange in its context, measure its political and human significance, and remind us that behind the official communiqués and the statistics — 9,500 prisoners freed since 2022, 1,596 since the start of 2026 — there are human beings whose survival was a victory wrested from a war that produces far too few of them.

The numbers that make people

The Kyiv Independent, in its coverage of June 26, 2026, reported Zelensky's announcement with the sobriety appropriate to this type of news: "160 Ukrainian prisoners freed." Interfax-Ukraine specified the cumulative count: 1,596 Ukrainians returned since the start of the year. These figures seem cold when read in a dispatch like that, lined up in a wire story. But behind each one lies a reality that those who have covered prisoner exchanges know: the transformation of faces at the moment of crossing. The stupor of those who no longer believed it was possible. The way some look up at the sky, as if to confirm that this sky is really Ukrainian.

I cannot describe faces I have not seen. I can only affirm, on the basis of documented testimonies from previous exchanges, that this type of scene repeats itself, and that its repetition does not make it banal. It makes it necessary. And the accumulation of these moments — one hundred and sixty this week, a few hundred the next week, a few dozen the week after — forms a count that, when it is finally closed, will say how much Ukraine held on to its children even in the worst circumstances.

The mechanics of an exchange: how it works

The behind-the-scenes of a complex humanitarian operation

A prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia is not a simple handover of people at a crossing point. It is a complex diplomatic and logistical operation that takes weeks, sometimes months of preparation. Both parties must agree on the lists of names — each candidate for exchange must be identified, their information verified, their inclusion approved by both sides. The role of intermediaries — in this case the United Arab Emirates for this exchange — is essential: they guarantee that the lists are acceptable to both parties and coordinate the logistics of the day.

The principle of this exchange was that of "160 for 160" — a numerically equal ratio. According to RBC-Ukraine, this late-June exchange was in fact the third phase of a broader agreement, which explains the precise figure. Numerical reciprocity is a principle both parties have maintained in most exchanges — it allows each to present the operation as a mutual concession rather than a unilateral gift, which is politically necessary to keep these exchanges possible.

Ukrainian prisoners in Russia: the reality of detention conditions

Speaking of this exchange requires naming what these prisoners were coming back from. Human rights organizations — notably Monitoring Human Rights based in Kyiv, UN special rapporteurs, and NGOs like Human Rights Watch — have extensively documented the detention conditions of Ukrainian prisoners in Russia. These conditions include: documented physical violence during interrogations; malnutrition and insufficient access to medical care; prolonged isolation; psychological pressure to obtain filmed statements for propaganda use; and in some cases, treatment meeting the legal definition of torture.

These facts are documented, corroborated by multiple independent sources and by the testimonies of prisoners freed in previous exchanges. They are not a narrative construction: they are a reality that the one hundred and sixty people freed on June 26 lived through and now carry in their bodies and memories. Receiving them as free people requires acknowledging where they came from.

The role of the United Arab Emirates: a discreet and effective mediation

Abu Dhabi, unlikely and indispensable intermediary

The United Arab Emirates have become, since 2022, one of the most active and most discreet mediators in the humanitarian aspects of the war. Their role in prisoner exchanges has been documented for several months — Ukrainian authorities have acknowledged the Emirati mediation on multiple occasions. But why the UAE? The answer lies in their particular geopolitical positioning: Abu Dhabi maintains economic and diplomatic relations with Russia while publicly affirming sovereignty principles that make them acceptable to Kyiv. This dual relationship — frustrating from the perspective of advocates of total condemnation of Russia — is precisely what makes the UAE useful as mediators.

The Emirati mediation on prisoner exchanges follows a proven model: discretion in negotiations, apparent neutrality on conditions, focus on humanitarian aspects without engagement on political questions. This model has the advantage of preserving the viability of future exchanges — if the UAE were to take public positions on political questions, they would lose their access to Moscow. Their humanitarian effectiveness therefore depends on their political ambiguity — an ambiguity that Ukrainians accept because the concrete result — prisoners returning home — justifies this pragmatism.

A mediation model that could serve tomorrow

Beyond the prisoner exchanges themselves, Emirati mediation illustrates a model of diplomacy that could be useful in future scenarios. It demonstrates that it is possible to maintain channels of communication with Russia without legitimizing its political positions, and that certain aspects of the war — notably the fate of captured persons — can be the subject of partial agreements even in the absence of agreement on fundamental questions.

This model has clear limits — the UAE cannot guarantee the treatment of prisoners during their detention, they can only obtain their release. And their neutrality carries a moral cost that some Ukrainian observers have rightly noted: by not condemning Russia for illegal detention conditions, the UAE allows Moscow to continue these practices without international sanction. It is a difficult compromise that Kyiv accepts because the alternative — no exchanges — is worse. But this compromise must be named.

The growing count: 9,500 faces since 2022

The significance of the number 9,500

Since February 24, 2022, more than 9,500 Ukrainians have been freed from Russian captivity via exchanges. This figure, reported precisely by Interfax-Ukraine as of June 26, 2026, must be read in context. It represents those who have been freed — those who have returned. It does not say how many are still being held. Estimates on the number of Ukrainian prisoners still in Russian hands vary, but human rights organizations cite figures representing several times the number freed. The road is still long.

One must also distinguish military prisoners — soldiers captured in combat, who theoretically have the protection of the Geneva Convention — and civilian prisoners — illegally detained without combatant status. The conditions of the latter are often even more precarious, since their detention is itself illegal under international humanitarian law and they have even less formal protection than military prisoners. Exchanges include both categories, but tracking is more difficult for civilians, often held in undeclared facilities.

What the number hides: the unidentified and the missing

Behind the count of the freed, there are also those of whom nothing is known. Soldiers listed as missing since battles of 2022 for whom no trace in prisoner registers has been found. Civilians deported to distant Russian regions from whom families have lost all contact. Minors separated from their families — a phenomenon documented by the UN that led to the issuance of an international arrest warrant against Putin and children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. These invisible ones in the count are perhaps the most difficult to reach and the most important not to forget.

The Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) maintains updated lists of detainees and missing persons, in coordination with the International Red Cross. This documentation work is essential for future exchanges — each name in those registers is a potentially recoverable life. And each exchange that succeeds is a demonstration that this documentation work is not in vain.

Zelensky announces 1,596 returns in 2026: what it means

A sustained pace in a diplomatically deadlocked context

Volodymyr Zelensky personally announced the return of the one hundred and sixty prisoners of June 26, as he does for every significant exchange. This practice — the president himself communicating these news — carries important symbolic weight. It tells each prisoner's family that the head of state thinks of their loved ones, follows the cases, and makes their return a personal priority.

The figure of 1,596 freed in 2026 (as of June 26), averaging roughly 270 per month, represents a sustained pace in the context of a conflict where overall political negotiations are completely deadlocked. It demonstrates that both parties — despite being in open war — have found a mechanism that works on this specific file. This is not goodwill: it is mutual interest managed by competent intermediaries. But the result is real.

The psychological dimension of return

The return of a prisoner is not the end of their story — it is the beginning of a new phase, often a difficult one. Prisoners freed in previous exchanges have testified, in interviews given to Ukrainian journalists and medical teams, about traumatizing detention conditions. They come back with physical injuries — malnutrition, traces of violence, untreated illnesses — and psychological injuries that often take longer to heal. Post-traumatic stress disorder is near-universal in former long-term detainees.

Ukraine has developed, since 2022, protocols for receiving freed prisoners: immediate medical examination, psychological support, gradual reintegration with their families, and legal accompaniment for administrative procedures. These protocols exist and function, even if available resources remain below what is needed. Each freed prisoner has a long road of reconstruction ahead — and the Ukrainian state, despite its own war-time difficulties, has committed to walking that road with them.

Dignity as resistance: what each exchange represents

Refusing to let prisoners become the forgotten

There is a moral and symbolic dimension to prisoner exchanges that transcends geopolitics. By maintaining these exchanges, by refusing to abandon its prisoners to their fate, Ukraine says something important about what it is as a state and as a society. It says its soldiers and civilians are not disposable resources. It says their captivity is not a fait accompli to be accepted. It says their return is a national priority — not a diplomatic concession, not a bargaining chip, but a duty.

This message contrasts with the way Russia treats its own dead and captives — statistics on Russian soldiers listed as missing, Russian families who never received their son's body, Russian soldiers captured by Ukraine whose fate elicits far less official communication from Moscow than declarations of military victory. Russia treats its soldiers as material. Ukraine treats its own as people. This difference says something fundamental about the two societies.

The dignity that Russian jails could not steal

Testimonies from freed prisoners often describe Russian jailers' attempts to break their identity — forcing them to say on camera that Ukraine is a "Nazi state," compelling them to sign surrender declarations, obliging them to watch propaganda documentaries. According to testimonies collected by human rights organizations, many prisoners resisted, silently or actively, these attempts at forced re-education. This resistance — under extreme detention conditions, without a lawyer, without contact with the outside world — is a form of courage that heroic war narratives rarely celebrate but which deserves to be named just as much.

Ukrainian identity, the awareness of defending something just, the refusal to capitulate psychologically even when the body is captive — these are what hundreds of freed prisoners have reported as their primary inner resource. This identity resistance is a victory Russia has been unable to win. And it says something essential about the nature of this war: it is not only a territorial battle. It is a battle for the right to be Ukrainian.

The 76th exchange in the context of diplomatic deadlock

A humanitarian success in a political desert

The June 26 exchange takes place in a context of total diplomatic deadlock on fundamental questions. Putin's statements about the "Istanbul agreements" were analyzed as a rhetorical maneuver without any real opening, as the ISW documented the same day. The 21st European sanctions package is under negotiation but runs into the same familiar obstacles. Military positions are relatively stabilized on some fronts but continue to be contested on others.

In this landscape of multiple deadlocks, prisoner exchanges represent the only real, measurable positive dynamic between the two parties. They do not change strategic balances. They do not bring the end of the war closer. But they keep alive a principle — the return of every captured person is possible and must be pursued — which could easily have been sacrificed in a conflict of this duration and intensity. The fact that it survives is, in itself, a modest but real form of humanitarian victory.

What the exchange means for the families

For each of the one hundred and sixty families that recovered a father, a son, a daughter, a brother, or a mother that day, the June 26 exchange is not a number in a communiqué. It is the end of a tunnel from which they were not sure they would see the exit. Many of these families had waited months — sometimes more than a year — without news, without confirmation that their loved one was alive. Previous exchanges had given them hope; some had to endure the disappointment of seeing published lists that did not contain the name they were looking for.

This individual and family dimension of the prisoner file may be the most politically important, even if it is rarely cited in geopolitical analyses. In Ukraine, the families of prisoners are an active, organized social group that maintains constant pressure on the authorities to accelerate exchanges. They have networks, associations, contacts with government teams. Their mobilization is a direct expression of Ukrainian civil society — a civil society that, despite four years of war, has not abandoned its most vulnerable members.

Exchanges as a political signal: what they tell Moscow

Russian participation: interest or cynicism?

Why does Russia continue to participate in these exchanges while under sanctions, in open war, and with political positions radically incompatible with those of Ukraine? The answer lies in practical interest: Russia recovers its own captured soldiers — men whose families exert real pressure on local authorities for them to return home. In a society where mobilization is already a source of internal tension, the accumulation of unrecovered prisoners would be an additional source of discontent. Exchanges are also a way for Moscow to present itself on the international stage as an actor that still respects certain humanitarian norms — contradicting the narrative of total pariah state and preserving a few interlocutors in the Global South.

It is important to note that Russian participation in the exchanges does not mean Moscow respects humanitarian norms in its detention facilities. The two things are separable, and Russia has clearly chosen to separate them: it participates in exchanges — which costs it little and brings public relations benefits — while maintaining detention conditions that international organizations describe as serious violations of international humanitarian law.

The signal to Ukraine and its allies

For Ukraine, each successful exchange sends several simultaneous signals. To its Western allies: Ukraine maintains channels with Russia where possible and legitimate, without compromising its political positions. To its own population: the state is doing everything possible to recover its captives, even in total war. And to those who doubted exchanges were possible: proof that the mechanism works and can continue.

It also sends an indirect signal to Moscow: Ukraine is prepared to cooperate on humanitarian files while maintaining total resistance on political files. This combination — complete firmness on substance, pragmatic flexibility on humanitarian issues — is a sophisticated diplomatic stance that demands a political discipline few governments at war manage to sustain. Zelensky and his teams have maintained it for four years. That is remarkable.

Russian prisoners held in Ukraine: the other side of the mirror

Ukrainian treatment of Russian prisoners

One-for-one exchanges imply that Ukraine also holds Russian prisoners — soldiers captured in combat or during special operations. The treatment of these prisoners by Ukraine is monitored by international organizations, notably the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Available reports indicate that Ukraine broadly complies with Geneva Convention standards in treating its prisoners, although isolated incidents have been documented and the accommodation conditions at some facilities have been judged insufficient by certain observers.

This asymmetry — systemic and documented violations on the Russian side, overall compliance with isolated incidents on the Ukrainian side — is significant. It reflects a difference in institutional culture and priorities between the two states. It must not be weaponized to deny Ukrainian incidents — which exist and must be corrected. But it must be named for what it is: a real asymmetry that carries moral and legal significance in assessing the behavior of both parties.

North Korean prisoners: an added complication

A new element has complicated the management of prisoners: the presence of North Korean soldiers in Russian ranks, fighting in Ukraine. Seoul, according to Caliber.az of June 23, 2026, opened the door to discussions about the fate of North Korean prisoners held in Ukraine. This file adds a layer of complexity: these soldiers are not Russian citizens, they are nationals of a third state (North Korea), and their eventual repatriation raises questions about their rights and about what would await them upon returning to a country whose regime does not welcome those who have seen the outside world.

The Ukrainian government has handled this file cautiously, seeking to involve international organizations and third-party governments to find solutions in conformity with international law. The presence of these North Korean soldiers is also a symptom of a broader dimension of the conflict: the international coalition supporting Russia — North Korea, Iran — which complicates all aspects of the conflict, including its humanitarian dimensions.

The 40-day campaign and prisoners: two dimensions of the same war

Military pressure and humanitarian liberation: a coherent strategy

Zelensky's announcement of a 40-day military pressure campaign targeting Russian infrastructure, combined with the June 26 prisoner exchange, illustrates Ukraine's overall strategy: maximize pressure on all fronts simultaneously. Military pressure — strikes on refineries, fuel depots, logistics hubs — aims to weaken Russia's war capacity. Prisoner exchanges aim to maintain Ukrainian social cohesion and to signal that the war has a human objective beyond military goals.

These two dimensions are not contradictory — they reinforce each other. A society that sees its prisoners return has more resilience to sustain continued resistance. And an army that knows its soldiers will not be abandoned fights with a different commitment than those who doubt they will be recovered if captured. The management of prisoners is not separable from military strategy — it is an essential component of it.

What Putin cannot capture: Ukrainian solidarity

Four years after the start of the war, one of the most remarkable data points is the persistence of Ukrainian social cohesion. Countries that were preparing for a Ukraine that would collapse within weeks are observing a society that holds, adapts, maintains its institutions, continues to organize prisoner exchanges, receives hundreds of freed prisoners, and integrates them into protocols of care and rehabilitation.

This cohesion is not magical — it is the product of considerable political and social work, of leaders who chose to stay in the country rather than flee, and of a population that collectively decided its survival was worth more than individual security. Putin may have been able to capture soldiers. He has not been able to capture Ukrainian solidarity. And it is this solidarity — manifested once more in the return of these one hundred and sixty people — that makes the difference between a nation and a collection of territories.

Prospects: how many more exchanges are needed

The scale of the prisoner file

It is impossible to give a precise figure on the number of Ukrainian prisoners still held in Russia. Estimates vary considerably depending on the source and the criteria used — military prisoners only, or also illegally detained civilians? Figures advanced by specialized organizations range from several thousand to several tens of thousands, depending on the criteria. What we know with certainty is that the current pace of exchanges — roughly 270 per month in 2026 — would not allow, even if maintained indefinitely, the release of all detainees in less than several years.

This arithmetic raises a difficult political question: is the complete liberation of all Ukrainian prisoners possible through exchanges alone, or does it require a comprehensive peace agreement that would include total release clauses? The answer, from practically every expert, is: partial exchanges can continue indefinitely, but complete liberation requires a comprehensive agreement. This is one of the reasons why even those most skeptical about a rapid peace cannot entirely reject the diplomatic objective — because thousands of prisoners depend on it.

Maintaining the pace, amplifying the exchanges

In this context, the most immediate practical objective is to maintain and, if possible, amplify the pace of exchanges. This requires several conditions: that intermediaries (UAE and others) maintain their access to both parties; that prisoner lists be kept up to date and new captures rapidly integrated into exchange files; and that international pressure — via human rights organizations, allied governments, and UN bodies — maintains both parties in compliance with their humanitarian obligations.

Each successful exchange also creates a precedent and a dynamic: it demonstrates the operation is feasible, establishes proven procedures, and builds a minimal working relationship between the intermediaries and both parties. This positive dynamic, fragile and dependent on the maintenance of current political conditions, is a precious humanitarian asset that must be preserved.

The documentation of crimes: prisoners as witnesses

Every freed person is a testimony

Beyond their immediate humanitarian value, freed prisoners play an essential role in the documentation of war crimes. Their testimony — collected under appropriate medical and psychological conditions by specialized teams — constitutes an irreplaceable primary source on Russian detention conditions, incarceration sites, documented torture practices, and the command structures bearing responsibility. These testimonies feed the files of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the international justice mechanisms that will one day be called to account.

This aspect of the exchanges — the judicial dimension — is rarely mentioned in official communiqués, for obvious practical reasons: if Moscow knows that every freed prisoner automatically becomes a potential witness against Russian officers, that could block future exchanges. The documentation therefore takes place discreetly, within care protocols, without being presented as the primary objective. But the result is real: the archives being built since 2022, testimony after testimony, form a judicial file of an unprecedented scale in the recent history of war crimes in Europe.

Justice deferred but inevitable

Freed prisoners carry a truth that Putin's regime would prefer to keep secret. Their return, in that sense, is also a legal victory: each testimony is one more piece in the file of international accountability for crimes committed in Russian jails. Justice will be long, difficult, imperfect — international tribunals always are. But it is inevitable. And each prisoner exchange contributes to it, even indirectly.

This is not the primary reason these exchanges take place. They take place because human beings deserve to go home. But the judicial dimension is present, real, and must be named. History will record what happened in Russian jails. The testimonies of those freed will ensure it cannot be ignored.

Toward the 77th exchange and beyond

Continuity as a moral commitment

The 76th exchange has taken place. The 77th is probably already being prepared, in discreet negotiations whose details will only be known once the operation is complete. That is how this humanitarian diplomacy works — in silence, out of the spotlight, guided by pragmatism rather than political visibility. And that is right: what matters is the result — people coming home — not the staging.

What must change, however, is the scale. The conditions for a significant increase in the pace of exchanges exist if the political will of both parties allows it. Increased international pressure, notably from Global South countries that maintain relations with Moscow, could contribute to this acceleration. European and American governments that want to show a human face to their support for Ukraine have here a concrete subject — not missiles, not tanks, just human beings who deserve to go home.

Dignity, weapon of resistance

In conclusion, the one hundred and sixty people freed on June 26, 2026 carry with them something Russia tried to take and could not: their dignity. Their Ukrainian identity. The refusal to capitulate psychologically. And in returning, they bring something back to Ukrainian society — proof that resistance has meaning, that collective efforts produce real results, and that individuals matter even in a war that grinds everything down.

One hundred and sixty faces. One hundred and sixty stories. One hundred and sixty reasons why this war must end, and end well. The dignity Russia could not steal is the most powerful argument for continuing to fight, to resist, and to demand justice.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist

Deported children: the darkest dimension of impossible exchanges

Thousands of minors torn from their families

Among the most invisible victims of this war are the Ukrainian children deported to Russia. The UN and several human rights organizations have documented tens of thousands of minors forcibly taken to Russia since 2022 — sometimes with their displaced families, often separated from them. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin and Russian children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova precisely for this policy of child deportation.

These children do not return via military prisoner exchanges. They require specific diplomacy, identification mechanisms, and pressure on third-party governments. Ukrainian organizations specializing in the return of these children — notably the "Bring Kids Back UA" initiative — document each case and maintain international pressure that governments should not ignore.

International justice as a horizon

The ICC arrest warrant against Putin for the deportation of children remains symbolically powerful but practically limited: Russia does not recognize the tribunal's jurisdiction and will not surrender its leaders. Yet this warrant has effects: it restricts Putin's international travel, sends a signal to diplomatic partners, and anchors in international law a legal characterization of Russian acts that no one can erase.

The documentation of child deportation cases, compiled by Ukrainian authorities and international organizations, constitutes a first-rate judicial file for future proceedings. Every child found and returned to Ukraine is both a humanitarian victory and one more piece in the file of a regime that believes itself above international law. History will judge those who made this deportation possible.

North Korean soldiers in Ukraine: the axis of contempt for rules

Pyongyang in the Ukrainian trenches

The presence of North Korean soldiers in Russian ranks in Ukraine, documented since late 2024 and confirmed by multiple sources including Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence services, represents a troubling dimension of the war's internationalization. Tens of thousands of Kim Jong-un's soldiers have been sent to fight in Ukraine — young men who often do not know which country they are in.

Seoul's decision to explore ways to handle the fate of North Korean prisoners held by Ukraine illustrates the complexity of this file. These soldiers are simultaneously victims of a regime that sent them to fight without guarantees, and combatants of an enemy army. Their repatriation raises diplomatic complexity questions without precedent.

The Russia-North Korea axis: an alliance of destabilization

The North Korean military engagement in Ukraine is inseparable from the broader relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang. In exchange for its soldiers and munitions, North Korea receives Russian military technologies — particularly in the domains of missiles and spy satellites. It is an exchange that mutually reinforces two regimes whose common objective is to challenge the Western international order.

For Seoul and Tokyo, North Korean involvement in Ukraine is therefore also a direct regional security problem: military technologies transferred to Pyongyang could end up in ballistic missile programs aimed at South Korea. Ukraine is part of a global security problem that connects the European front to the Indo-Pacific front.

Columnist's transparency note

Limits and method

This report is based on public sources — official Ukrainian communiqués, wire agency dispatches, published reports from human rights organizations — and not on direct access to the freed prisoners or their families. I was not at the scene of the exchange. Descriptions of detention conditions are based on published reports from credible organizations (HRW, UN) on previous exchanges, extrapolated to the present exchange insofar as the general conditions documented have not fundamentally changed. The figures are those reported by Kyiv Independent and Interfax-Ukraine on June 26, 2026.

Bias and positioning

I am pro-Ukraine and I consider the detention conditions in Russian jails to be serious violations of international humanitarian law. This conviction shapes my reading of the facts. I have sought to distinguish documented facts from inferences, and not to amplify testimonies beyond what published sources establish.

Sources

Primary sources

Kyiv Independent — 160 Ukrainian prisoners freed in the 76th exchange — June 26, 2026

Interfax-Ukraine — 1,596 Ukrainians repatriated in 2026, more than 9,500 since 2022 — June 26, 2026

RBC-Ukraine — Ukraine and Russia complete the 3rd phase of the 160/160 exchange — June 26, 2026

1lurer.am — Exchange of 160 for 160 between Russia and Ukraine — June 26, 2026

Caliber.az — Seoul opens the door to North Korean prisoners held in Ukraine — June 23, 2026

Secondary sources

ISW — Assessment of June 23, 2026: Russian positions on negotiation

Ukrainska Pravda — Putin and the Istanbul basis for negotiations — June 23, 2026

United24 Media — Economic context: Russian deficit exceeds 80 billion — June 23, 2026

RBC-Ukraine — Zelensky: the 40-day pressure campaign on Russian infrastructure — June 26, 2026