Two-hundred and seventy Ukrainian navy personnel and 120 civilians are returned to Ukraine after the Russian Protection Ministry introduced on Friday that Moscow and Kyiv had exchanged that quantity of prisoners every within the first spherical of a large-scale swap on Friday.
Navy Administration of Kyiv Metropolis/Anadolu through Getty Photographs
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Navy Administration of Kyiv Metropolis/Anadolu through Getty Photographs
A CITY IN NORTHERN UKRAINE — Ukraine and Russia started the trade of 1,000 prisoners of struggle Friday, the most important such swap because the starting of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“We’re bringing our individuals dwelling,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media, after the troopers had crossed into Ukraine. Shortly after that they had crossed, he posted a number of photographs of the freed Ukrainians, many draped within the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag.
He stated 390 individuals had been included within the first of a three-day trade. “This settlement was reached at a gathering in Turkey,” he added, “and you will need to totally implement it.”
The Ukrainian authorities requested NPR to not disclose the placement out of safety considerations. An space with so many Ukrainian troopers and civilians gathered in a single place could possibly be susceptible to a strike.
This POW trade was the one deal made in Istanbul final week through the two nations’ first direct negotiations a few ceasefire because the early days of Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Even earlier than the trade was introduced on Friday, President Trump took to social media saying it was accomplished.
Ukrainian authorities stated 270 troopers and 120 civilians had been included in Friday’s trade.
Zelenskyy’s workplace stated earlier this month that greater than 8,000 Ukrainian troopers are estimated to have been captured by Russia because the starting of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Based on Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, greater than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are additionally in Russian captivity.
A type of civilians is Volodymyr Mykolayenko, the previous mayor of the southern metropolis of Kherson. His niece Hanna Korsun-Samchuk instructed NPR that Russian forces took him away after occupying the town for a number of months in 2022.
“I have been making an attempt to boost the difficulty of civilian prisoners as a result of there is not any simple process for exchanging them,” she stated on Monday in an interview in Kherson.
Dozens of Ukrainian households waited for hours in a leafy courtyard for the liberated prisoners of struggle, hoping their family members could be amongst them. They held banners, flags and posters emblazoned with pictures of their family members, all troopers.
Katya Kobel, who’s from the northern metropolis of Chernihiv, wept as she spoke about her husband, Hryhori, who has been in Russian captivity since December 2023. She says she discovered he was captured within the japanese Donetsk area after receiving textual content messages with photographs of her husband from a Russian quantity.
“They instructed me, ‘We’ve got captured your man,’ ” she stated.
Natalia Apetyk is hoping her 23-year-old son, Yelizar, will lastly come dwelling. He has been in Russian captivity since 2022, when he was captured whereas defending japanese Ukraine from a Russian incursion.
“At this time it’s precisely three years since his final name, and tomorrow will probably be three years since he disappeared,” she stated.
Eighteen-year-old Milena Moroz is holding {a photograph} of her father, Yevhen, who was taken prisoner in February of this yr in japanese Ukraine. She says she did not see her father as a lot as she would have appreciated, since her dad and mom are divorced.
She is ready to inform him one thing necessary, one thing she wished she had instructed him extra typically: “I like you, Dad.”
NPR’s Hanna Palamarenko contributed to this report from Kyiv.
