Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners. The Ukrainian side returned home 52 defenders who defended Mariupol. These are officers, medics, sergeants and soldiers.
This was announced by the head of the Presidentʼs Office, Andriy Yermak.
Among those released are 12 National Guardsmen, including two Azovstal defenders, 18 sailors, 8 border guards, 9 Territorial Defense fighters, three soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and two civilians.
“We managed to exchange the head of the surgical department of the Mariupol military hospital, who was at Azovstal, and the young military surgeon of the 65th military mobile hospital. We are returning a marine whose wife was recently released from captivity, and a volunteer from Mariupol with the symbolic surname Moscow, and also a sailor from the Snake Island. Some military personnel captured in the Chernobyl zone will also be at home," Yermak said.
The leader of the self-proclaimed “DPR” Denis Pushylin said that the Russian side received 50 of its fighters.
- On October 11, Ukraine returned 32 soldiers and the body of fallen Israeli Dmytro Fialka from Russian captivity. On October 13, there were 20 military men, and on October 17, there were 108 Ukrainian women, including 37 evacuees from Azovstal.
- On October 26, Ukraine freed 10 soldiers from captivity and took the body of an American volunteer.
- The next day, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar reported that during the full-scale invasion, Ukraine freed 978 people, including 99 civilians.