130 Ukrainian Defenders Return Home As Part of Easter Exchange

Ukraine returned 130 more defenders from Russia as part of the Easter prisoner exchange. The exchange took place over the past few days in several stages.

According to Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak, soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service, the National Guard, sailors, and employees of the State Special Transport Service are among those released.

Privates and sergeants who were captured in Bakhmut, Soledar, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson directions returned home.

“Easter. The quintessence of this holiday is hope. This is exactly what the relatives of the prisoners, who had been waiting for them for so long, felt. The lives of our people are the highest value for us,” Yermak notes.

As the Security Service of Ukraine informed, the exchange was the result of the work of the Joint Centre for the Coordination of the Search and Release of Prisoners of War which implemented the decision of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

The Security Service of Ukraine emphasized that work continues to return every Ukrainian from captivity.

As a reminder, the previous exchange took place on 10 April. Then Ukraine returned 80 servicemen and 20 servicewomen, including defenders of Mariupol, Azovstal steel works, and Hostomel. In total, Ukraine has already returned more than 2,000 of its citizens from Russian captivity.

Bohdan Marusyak