Ukraine Repatriates 84 People from Russian Captivity
As part of the new, 67th prisoner exchange, 84 people – military personnel and civilians – have returned to Ukraine.
The Gaze reports on it, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War on social media.
"We are bringing Ukrainians home to Ukraine. A new exchange, 84 people. These are both military personnel and civilians. Almost all of them need medical assistance and significant rehabilitation.
Among the civilians released today are those who have been held by the Russians since 2014, 2016 and 2017. Among the military personnel released today are the defenders of Mariupol. I am grateful to everyone who is helping us to continue to free Ukrainian prisoners," Zelensky said.
The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War specifies that 33 military personnel and 51 Ukrainian civilians have been freed from Russian captivity.
The peculiarity of today's exchange is that it was possible to free Ukrainian civilians and military personnel who were detained in the occupied territories even before the full-scale invasion and illegally sentenced to long terms of imprisonment – from 10 to 18 years. One of the freed prisoners had been in captivity for 4,013 days – he was captured in Donetsk Oblast back in 2014.
Ukrainians who were captured and sentenced by the occupiers between 2016 and 2021 are also returning to their homeland. Among those freed are three women from Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. One of them is a primary school teacher who was imprisoned in 2019.
Among the Ukrainian civilians released on 14 August is a 27-year-old man who was illegally imprisoned by the occupiers in 2016. At that time, he was only 18 years old.
In addition to civilians, defenders from the Mariupol garrison, Navy soldiers and State Border Service officers are also returning home. Ten officers were freed from captivity.
Most of the freed civilians and military personnel have health problems and disabilities.
The youngest freed person is 26 years old, and the oldest is 74, of which he spent the last seven years (since 2018) in a Russian prison.