POW swap: 95 Ukrainian fighters liberated from Russian captivity

Ninety-five Ukrainian service members returned from Russian captivity, 20 of whom were sentenced to life imprisonment for defending their own land from the aggressor.

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced this on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

"Ninety-five of our people are back home. Soldiers who defended Mariupol and Azovstal, Donetsk region, Luhansk region, Kharkiv region, Kyiv region, Chernihiv region, and Kherson region," the president noted.

According to the head of state, every time Ukraine rescues its people from Russian captivity, "we are approaching the day when all those who remain there see freedom."

Zelensky expressed his gratitude to the team engaged in the search for and release of prisoners.

"We are doing everything to extract all our people who are being held by Russia. My gratitude goes to the soldiers who replenish the exchange fund and to all partners who help us," the president emphasized.

The Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said that the return of 95 defenders of Ukraine was the result of a prisoner exchange effort.

"The peculiarity of this exchange is that many Ukrainians are now returning home who were handed down so-called ‘verdicts’ from the judicial system of the aggressor state, being "sentenced". Twenty-eight of them were sentenced to long terms, and 20 – to life in prison for defending their own land from the aggressor," the statement says.