Ukraine has secured the return of 49 Ukrainian prisoners of war from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelensky said today.
“We must bring back all our soldiers and civilians” he said in a post on the Telegram app, adding that military personnel from the armed forces, national guard, police and border guards were included in the latest exchange.
“We also managed to free part of the defenders and defenses of Azovstal. The hero of Ukraine, the military doctor Viktor Ivchuk, is also back“, Zelensky wrote.
The Ukrainian president’s message was accompanied by photos of the soldiers, including women, wrapped in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags. He did not immediately specify whether that release was the result of a trade with Russia.
Among the prisoners of war were veterans of the Azovstal steelworks, besieged by the Russian army in Mariupol (southeast) in the spring of 2022.
Among the civilians, as reported by the Russian service of the BBC, was Lenia Umerova from Crimea, who has been held in solitary confinement since 2022 on charges of espionage. Umerova was arrested when she tried to cross into occupied Crimea to see her seriously ill father.
According to the Ukrainian website “khachu zit” (I want to live), Russia took 49 prisoners of war, most of whom were young soldiers captured in the Kursk region. There was no official confirmation from the Russian side.
Source: APE-MPE, Reuters, AFP, with information from BBC (Russian service)
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