95 Ukrainian soldiers brought back from Russian captivity, 13 of them are defenders of Azovstal steel plant – photos

Ukraine has brought 95 of its defenders back from Russian captivity.

Source: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, on social media

Quote: "We keep bringing our people back home. 95 more defenders were liberated from the Russian captivity. These are the soldiers from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine and the State Border Guard of Ukraine.

I’m grateful to our team which carried out the prisoners of war swaps, and the United Arab Emirates for being a mediator in this liberation. Even though it’s extremely hard, we’re looking for everybody who could be in captivity. We must bring back everyone."

Details: The Coordination Staff specified that among the liberated Ukrainians there are 49 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (including a soldier who agreed to fly to the Azovstal plant in the city of Mariupol voluntarily in order to help the Ukrainian units that were blocked there, and two members of the Ukrainian Air Force), 21 members of the National Guard of Ukraine, 10 navy sailors, seven members of the Territorial Defence Forces, five border guards, two members of the State Special Transport Service of Ukraine and one defender from a volunteer formation of a territorial community.

This time, all the liberated soldiers are men: 88 privates and sergeants and seven officers.

Among the soldiers who were finally liberated there are 23 defenders of the city of Mariupol (13 of them defended the Azovstal plant). 41 fought on the Donetsk front, nine on the Luhansk front, nine on the Zaporizhzhia front, three on the Kherson and three on the Kharkiv front. One of the liberated sailors was in Kyiv Oblast at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and defended his home village of Makariv from the Russian occupiers by joining the local Territorial Defence. He was captured by Russian soldiers while distributing humanitarian aid to residents of the local community.

Many Ukrainian soldiers who come back suffer from injuries and have chronic illnesses which require durable treatment. Most of them remained in captivity of the aggressor state since 2022. Among the liberated soldiers there is also a defender who was considered missing under special circumstances.

Note: "This is the 54th PoW swap since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. In total, the Coordination Staff managed to liberate 3405 people from captivity."

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