A new exchange of prisoners took place between Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian military personnel and eight civilians returned home. reported this by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Today our people are returning home again. These are soldiers of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Service and civilians. Many of them have been in captivity since 2022. Among those who returned was journalist Dmytro Khilyuk, who was kidnapped in Kyiv region in March 2022. Finally, he is back in Ukraine”, Zelenskyi said.
The Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War noted that thanks to the agreements in Istanbul, another, already the 68th exchange took place. Ukrainian soldiers returned, and eight civilians were also freed.
Among those released are representatives of almost all units of the Defense Forces – airborne assault, airborne, naval, as well as soldiers of the Ministry of Defense, the National Guard, and the State Border Service. The headquarters emphasized that all freed soldiers belong to the rank and file and most of them spent more than three years in captivity.
“The soldiers who returned today took part in the defense of Mariupol, fought in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kyiv and Sumy directions, and also guarded the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Those who were captured in the temporarily occupied territories, in particular in Crimea, are also returning to their families, the report says.
The headquarters also informed about the return of two Ukrainian journalists – Dmytro Hylyuk and Mark Kaliush.
“The occupiers illegally detained them in 2022 and 2023. Among the freed civilians is Serhii Kovalev, a medic from the Hospitallers battalion, who saved the lives of defenders and civilians during the siege of Azovstal. The former mayor of Kherson Volodymyr Mykolaenko, who refused to cooperate with the occupiers, also returned home, the headquarters clarified.
