68th POW exchange: Eight civilians, including journalists and ex-Kherson mayor, return to Ukraine

The exchange was announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Interagency Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

“Today, our people are returning home — soldiers of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Service, and civilians. Most have been in captivity since 2022,” Zelenskyy said, adding that the exchange was made possible through UAE mediation.

The returned servicemen had defended Mariupol, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Sumy, and the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Others were captured in Crimea and other occupied territories.

Released civilians

• Dmytro Khilyuk, UNIAN correspondent, abducted from his home in Kozarovychi near Kyiv in 2022, has finally returned. His family only knew he was alive.
• Mark Kaliush, a journalist from Melitopol who ran the Telegram channel “Melitopol is Ukraine”, was captured, convicted, and sent for forced psychiatric treatment.
• Serhiy Kovalov, a Lviv medic from the “Hospitaliers” battalion, saved lives during the Azovstal siege.
• Volodymyr Mykolayenko, former mayor of Kherson, refused to collaborate with the occupiers. In 2022, he declined his own release so that his gravely ill cellmate could be freed first, recalled Andriy Yermak, head of the President’s Office.