Ukraine achieves milestone with latest prisoner exchange
Ukraine has conducted another prisoner exchange with Russia. A total of 75 individuals have returned to Ukraine, including four civilians. The group also includes the defenders of Mariupol.
1 June 2024 11:52
During all this time, we have not stopped working for a single day to bring every Russian prisoner home. Today, we have achieved a significant result: 75 of our people have returned to Ukraine. Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard, border guards, and four civilians are already on their native soil," he wrote on social media.
The President assured that the authorities remember all citizens who are imprisoned by Russia and are making efforts to find every single one of them.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine explained that the following have returned to the country: 29 employees of this department, 21 soldiers of the National Guard, and eight police officers.
Among the freed are the defenders of Mariupol
"Among those exchanged are the defenders of Mariupol, Snake Island, Hostomel, and 14 defenders of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant," the ministry said in a statement.
The Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for Prisoners of War announced that this was the 52nd prisoner exchange with Russia since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. "To date, we have managed to free 3,210 defenders of Ukraine," it reported on Telegram.
Along with the prisoner exchange, there was also an exchange of the bodies of those who fell in Ukraine's defensive war against Russia. The remains of 212 people have returned to their homeland, the Coordination Headquarters informed.
Ukrainian services also published a photo of one freed individual after a year. The man was starved while in captivity.