Today, on Ukraine’s Independence Day, the 68th exchange of prisoners of war took place on the instructions of the President of Ukraine.
This was reported by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
In accordance with the agreements reached in Istanbul, Ukrainian military personnel were returned home and eight Ukrainian civilians were released.
Among the freed soldiers are representatives of virtually all defence forces: airborne assault, air force, navy, as well as soldiers of the Territorial Defence Forces, National Guard and State Border Guard Service.
All the freed defenders are private soldiers and sergeants. Almost all of them spent more than three years in captivity. “The servicemen who returned today defended the city of Mariupol, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, Mykolayiv, Kyiv, and Sumy Regions, and guarded the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Those who fell into enemy hands in the temporarily occupied territories, in Crimea, will also see their relatives,” the Coordination Headquarters said in a statement.
Two Ukrainian journalists, Dmytro Khilyuk and Mark Kaliush, were also released. They were illegally detained by the occupiers in 2022 and 2023. Among the released civilians is also medic Serhiy Kovalov from the Hospitaliers battalion, who saved the lives of defenders and civilians during the siege of the Azovstal plant. Former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, who refused to cooperate with the occupiers, is also returning home.
“We express our gratitude to the United Arab Emirates for their help and assistance in organising the return of Ukrainian civilians,” the press release said.
