A prisoner exchange took place: 193 soldiers have returned home
24 April 16:48
Ukraine has repatriated another group of servicemen as part of a new prisoner exchange with Russia. A total of 193 soldiers have been returned home from captivity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyyannounced thison , according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
“193 Ukrainian soldiers are returning home as part of the exchange. They defended Ukraine on various fronts. Among them are those against whom Russia has opened criminal cases, as well as wounded soldiers,” the president noted.
According to him, the soldiers returning home are from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service, the National Police, and the State Special Transport Service.
“We remember each and every one of them and continue to work every day to bring our people home from Russian captivity,” he emphasized.
As clarified by the Coordination Headquarters, a distinctive feature of this exchange is that it succeeded in returning young men born in the 2000s from captivity, as well as wounded defenders. Most of those released were illegally detained in Chechnya. Fabricated criminal cases were brought against some of them, which constitutes a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
“The released servicemen defended the country in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kursk sectors. The youngest defender is 24 years old. He was captured in the Donetsk sector in 2023. The oldest released defender is 60 years old,” the coordination headquarters reported.
Earlier, the head of the President’s Office, Kirill Budanov, had stated that the exchange could take place at the end of the month.
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Prisoner exchanges with Russia
As a reminder, the previous prisoner exchange took place on April 11, on the eve of Easter, marking the 72nd such exchange. It should be noted that Ukraine and Russia conducted a large-scale exchange of prisoners of war, which took place on the eve of Easter. A total of 175 defenders and 7 civilians were returned home.
The soldiers returned from captivity had been defending Ukraine on various fronts: in Mariupol, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kyiv, and Kursk regions. Most had been in captivity since 2022.
The Joint Forces Command noted that the youngest released soldier is 22 years old, while the oldest is 63.
In total, among the released servicemen were representatives of the Navy, the Army, the Transport Troops, the Airborne Forces, the Special Forces, the Air Force, the Security Service of Ukraine, as well as the National Guard of Ukraine and the State Border Guard Service.
Seven Ukrainian civilians who had been captured by Russian occupation forces back in 2022 were also returned at that time.
In February, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the occupiers are currently holding up to 7,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war. Ukraine, for its part, holds 4,000 Russian prisoners.
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