According to Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation, this claim is Russian propaganda. The Center states: "Ukraine has repeatedly emphasized its readiness to carry out exchanges based on the 'all for all' principle."
While there is some question about whether Ukraine refused certain war captives during exchange negotiations (and the specific incident the claim refers to is unclear), Ukraine appears willing to participate in exchanges when it believes Russia is holding up its end of the bargain.
The two countries have certainly traded accusations over the process. Regarding a June swap, Le Monde reports that "Moscow...accused Ukraine of not turning up to collect the dead bodies [of Ukrainian soldiers] and not agreeing on a date to swap the captured soldiers, while Kyiv said Russia was playing 'dirty games' by not sticking to the agreed parameters ['1,000 for 1,000'] for the exchange."
Despite the disputes, numerous successful prisoner exchanges have occurred in 2025. PBS notes that the release of 1,000 POWs in May was the largest single swap in the war. The BBC reports that before that, "there have been dozens of smaller-scale exchanges." In August, the two countries swapped 146 more POWs, according to Reuters.
