Bohdan Kovalchuk returned to Ukraine as part of an exchange — he had been a prisoner of the Russians since he was 17

During the latest exchange, civilian hostage Bohdan Kovalchuk returned from Russian captivity. He was captured 9 years ago, when he was only 17.

Bohdanʼs return was reported to hromadske by his grandmother Tetyana Hots.

She said that her grandson had already called her. Now Tetyana is going to go to Kyiv, where she will meet her grandson.

The Russians detained Bohdan in 2016 in the city of Yasynuvata, which was already occupied at the time. He was trying to go to his grandmother in what was then Dzerzhynsk (now Toretsk) to finish his studies at school and get a Ukrainian diploma.

The boy was detained along with five underage friends — they were accused of allegedly collaborating with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and organizing the bombing of cars and the "DPR police station".

In July 2018, the so-called Supreme Court of the "DPR" sentenced the detainees for "terrorism" to terms of 10 to 15 years — Kovalchuk received a 10-year sentence.

Former ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova said that in 2019, when the largest prisoner exchange took place at that time, the militants offered to “pardon” the prisoners in exchange for their refusal to return to the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government. At that time, everyone agreed to this except Kovalchuk.

• Ukraine held a prisoner exchange on August 14. 84 prisoners returned home, 51 of them civilians.

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