Ukraine frees more severely ill defenders from Russian captivity during another stage of exchange
Ukraine completed another stage of a major prisoner exchange with Russia, securing the release of a group of severely ill and wounded defenders, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Thursday.
While the exact number of freed defenders was not disclosed, the group included soldiers from the Armed Forces, specifically the Navy, Air Assault Forces, Territorial Defense Forces, as well as the National Guard and State Border Guard Service.
The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported that the released defenders suffer from serious injuries and significant health issues.
“Every defender freed today has severe medical diagnoses and illnesses resulting from injuries and captivity,” the Headquarters stated. “Many exhibit significant weight loss, dystrophy, ulcers, vision problems, musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and digestive issues.”
Most of the released soldiers had been held in Russian captivity for over three years. The oldest released soldier is 63 years old, noted Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
A defender was also returned home, whose birthday is today - he turned 45.
The soldiers fought in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kyiv oblasts, with a significant portion captured during the defense of Mariupol.
All liberated fighters are privates or sergeants.
More about exchanges
Ukraine's 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 the exchange in the "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 severely wounded and sick Ukrainian soldiers was returned, and on June 12, Ukraine brought home another group of severely wounded and seriously ill defenders.
On June 14, the fourth exchange in a week took place, with the severely ill, seriously wounded and young people among those released.
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