Ukraine has managed to return 95 more defenders from Russian captivity as part of an exchange. This was announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"We continue to bring our people home. Another 95 defenders have been released from Russian captivity. These are soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and border guards.
I am grateful to our exchange team and the United Arab Emirates for mediating this release. No matter how difficult it is, we are looking for everyone who may be in captivity. We must return everyone," the President said.
According to the Coordination Headquarters, the released prisoners include 49 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (including a member of the "air bridge" who volunteered to fly to Azovstal in a helicopter to help the units blocked there, and two from the Air Force), 21 National Guardsmen, 10 sailors, seven from the Territorial Defence Forces, five border guards, two from the State Special Transport Service and one defender from a volunteer territorial community unit.
All of those released this time were men: 88 privates and sergeants, seven officers.
Among the men who have finally gained their freedom, 23 were defending Mariupol (thirteen of them were Azovstal defenders), 41 fought in the Donetsk sector, nine in the Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya sectors, and three in the Kherson and Kharkiv sectors.
One of the released sailors was in Kyiv Region at the time of the invasion and immediately joined the defence of his village against the occupiers as part of the Makariv territorial defence unit. While providing humanitarian aid to the local community, he was captured by Russian Buryat soldiers.
Many returning Ukrainian soldiers suffer from the consequences of their injuries and have chronic diseases that require long-term treatment. Most of them had been held captive by the aggressor country since 2022. Among those released is a defender who was reported missing.
"This is the 54th prisoner exchange since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. In total, the Coordination Headquarters managed to return 3,405 people from Russian captivity.”