Prisoner swap: Ukraine returns home new group of seriously wounded and seriously ill soldiers
Ukraine secured the release of a new group of severely wounded and seriously ill soldiers from Russian captivity in a prisoner exchange, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported on Thursday, with the group including defenders of Mariupol.
The exact number of freed soldiers was not disclosed, but they include members of the Armed Forces, Air Assault Troops, Navy, Air Forces, Territorial Defense, Special Operations Forces, State Border Guard Service, and National Guard, aged 22 to 59.
All are men of private and sergeant ranks, with some, including Mariupol defenders held over three years, according to the commissioner.
Some of the now-released Ukrainian soldiers were previously listed as missing, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War noted.
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View in Telegram.In general, Ukrainians who fought in the Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk sectors are returning home.
"They all require medical treatment, and they will certainly receive the care they need. This is already the second stage of bringing back severely wounded and seriously ill warriors. We continue working to bring everyone home from Russian captivity. We thank everyone who helps make these exchanges possible — so that each and every one of them can be home, in Ukraine," Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The defenders released from captivity will undergo the necessary medical examination, receive assistance with physical and psychological rehabilitation, as well as all due payments for the entire time they were in captivity, the Coordination Headquarters stated.
More about exchanges
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that, following the second round of talks in Istanbul on June 2, Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange all seriously wounded and seriously ill prisoners of war, as well as all soldiers aged 18 to 25.
The parties agreed to focus not on numbers, but on specific categories of prisoners of war for an exchange in an "all-for-all" format.
On June 9, a group of captured defenders under the age of 25 was returned to Ukraine. The next day, a group of seriously wounded and sick Ukrainian soldiers was returned.
On June 11, Ukraine returned the bodies of 1,212 fallen soldiers. The bodies of the repatriated fallen servicemembers will be sent to designated state specialized institutions for forensic medical examination. They must establish the identities of the deceased as soon as possible.