New prisoner exchange: fighters reported missing returned home

Today, 12 June, another prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia took place. Ukrainian defenders, including those who were seriously wounded and seriously ill, returned home. Some of them had previously been reported missing. This was reported by the Coordination Headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war.

The exchange was carried out within the framework of the agreements reached in Istanbul. Servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in particular the Airborne Assault Troops, the Navy and Air Force, the Territorial Defence Forces, the Security Service of Ukraine, the State Border Service and the National Guard, have returned to Ukraine.

Among those released are the defenders of Mariupol, who spent more than three years in captivity. All of those returned were men, privates and sergeants.

Some of the released were considered missing, - noted in the headquarters.

The soldiers fought in Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya and Lugansk directions.

After their return, the Ukrainian military will undergo a medical examination, a course of physical and psychological rehabilitation and will receive all the payments provided by the state for the time in captivity.

Today's exchange was part of a large-scale agreement providing for the return of severely wounded, seriously ill and young servicemen under the age of 25. Earlier, Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange this category of prisoners after the second round of negotiations in Istanbul.

Earlier Socialportal wrote about the story of Ukrainian human rights activist Maksym Butkevych, who spent more than two years in Russian captivity. Maksym was sentenced to 13 years in the Russian Federation on a trumped-up case that claimed he was an extremist who ran a squad of far-right radicals. These charges shocked everyone who knew Maksim. He was a human rights activist for decades, co-founder of the organisation Without Borders, and one of the few people in Ukraine who cared about the fate of asylum seekers, refugees, and foreign students who faced arbitrariness, rudeness, and intolerance. He also helped political refugees stemming from authoritarian regimes, primarily Putin's.