207 Ukrainian brought back home from Russian captivity – video

Ukraine has managed to bring back home 207 Ukrainians from Russian captivity.

Source: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on social media

Quote: "Our people are back home. 207 guys.

We are bringing them back no matter what. We remember everyone who is in captivity. Both servicemen and civilians. We have to bring everyone back. We are working on it.

Now we have another great job done by the Ukrainian team. Budanov, Yermak, Usov, Maliuk and Klymenko – well done!" [Kyrylo Budanov is Chief of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, Andrii Yermak is the head of the President’s Office, Dmytro Usov is the secretary of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Vasyl Maliuk is the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, and Ihor Klymenko is the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine – ed.]

Details: The Coordination Centre clarifies that this is the 50th exchange since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The released servicemen include 95 representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 56 National Guardsmen, 26 border guards, 29 Territorial Defence servicemen and one representative of the National Police of Ukraine.

A total of 180 of the defenders that are brought home are privates and sergeants, and another 27 are Ukrainian officers. At least 36 of them have been injured or seriously ill. The oldest of the exchanged defenders is 61 years old, and the youngest will soon turn 21.

Among the released servicemen are defenders of Mariupol, Kherson, fighters from Zmiinyi Island, marines and combat medics.

The previous prisoner swap was scheduled for 24 January. More than 200 captured Ukrainians were to come back to Ukraine at that time. Russia claimed that 65 Ukrainian prisoners were on board the Il-76 aircraft that crashed in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast. Ukraine has no confirmation of this claim by the aggressor.

Kremlin propaganda published a list of 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were supposedly on board. Later, the Russian side officially confirmed this list to the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. The Coordination Headquarters, for its part, confirmed that the 65 Ukrainian defenders on the list were indeed to be brought back to Ukraine as part of the planned exchange on 24 January.

The Coordination Headquarters has now clarified to Ukrainska Pravda that among the 207 Ukrainians exchanged on 31 January, there are no people from the so-called 'list of 65'.

Ukraine’s Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets noted that 3,035 Ukrainians have been brought home so far.

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