Ukraine returns 95 soldiers from Russian captivity

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported. 

As part of the 58th exchange of prisoners of war, 95 more Ukrainian defenders returned home. 

“The peculiarity of this exchange is that many Ukrainians are returning home who have received so-called sentences from the judicial system of the aggressor country and have been “convicted”: 28 - to long terms, and 20 - to life imprisonment for defending their own land from the aggressor,” the Coordination Center said in a statement.

Among those released from captivity today are National Guardsmen, sailors, soldiers of the Armed Forces, border guards and representatives of other units of the Security and Defense Forces.
 

These are the soldiers who defended Mariupol, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Kherson regions.  Among those released are 69 soldiers and sergeants and 26 officers.
 

Many of those released from captivity suffer from serious illnesses and the consequences of severe injuries, as well as severe weight loss due to torture and malnutrition. 
 

This is the 58th exchange organized by the Coordination Center. In total, 3767 people have been released from captivity.
 

“95 of our people are back home. The soldiers who defended Mariupol and Azovstal, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kherson regions. Every time Ukraine rescues its people from Russian captivity, we bring closer the day when freedom will be returned to all those in Russian captivity,” said President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukraine expressed its gratitude to the United Arab Emirates for their assistance and support in organizing the exchange.

Among those who returned home is human rights activist, soldier and co-founder of the ZMINA Human Rights Center Maksym Butkevych.

In addition, 34 Azov soldiers were released from Russian captivity. This was reported by the commander of the 12th Azov Special Forces Brigade, Colonel Denys Prokopenko.
 

“These soldiers defended Mariupol for 86 days, left the territory of Azovstal under orders and spent two and a half years in Russian captivity. Thanks to the soldiers of the Mariupol garrison, Ukraine withstood the first attack in the spring of 2022.

I welcome you back to your homeland and thank you for your resilience and loyalty to your country. The personnel of the brigade were looking forward to seeing each of you and did everything possible to replenish the exchange fund with Russian prisoners,” he wrote. 

Prokopenko thanked everyone involved in organizing the exchange and noted that such exchanges “are gradually becoming systematic.” He reminded that about 900 Azov fighters remain in Russia. 

• The previous prisoner exchange took place on September 14. As part of it, 103 Ukrainian servicemen returned home, including 23 Azov soldiers.

• As a result of repatriation activities, on Friday, October 18, the bodies of 501 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine.