Azov commanders held in closed security facility in Turkey — Prokopenko's wife

"I am currently in a situation when prisoners' wives sometimes write to me, even threaten me, saying, 'Your husband is at a resort,'” Kateryna Prokopenko said.

“This is not true. They are at a closed regime facility. Even we do not know where they are exactly. They are not at a resort or at the sea. They have a certain regime, regulated calls, a schedule. They are not being tortured like in Russia, but, nevertheless, they are not completely free."

She said the Ukrainian soldiers have access to information and are aware of the situation in Ukraine.

"We all understand that if they had remained in captivity longer in those conditions, their health would have inevitably deteriorated,” she added.

“I’m grateful to everyone involved for getting him out of that hell. Now the most important task is to return my husband to his homeland."

What is known about Mariupol defenders in captivity?

After two months of urban warfare with the Russian invasion forces, the defenders of Mariupol were surrounded at the Azovstal plant with a limited supply of medicines, food, drinking water and ammunition. They left the plant and surrendered on May 16, 2022 by the order of the General Staff, with the aim of saving their lives.

The evacuation was mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which recorded the personal data of the Ukrainian military, and the UN. The Ukrainian soldiers were taken to a medical facility in occupied Novoazovsk, as well as to the territory of a penal colony in occupied Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said there was no other way to rescue the heroes from Azovstal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on June 6, 2022 that more than 2,500 Mariupol defenders were in Russian captivity. A total of 2,449 defenders left the territory of Azovstal, according to Ukrayinska Pravda.

Ukraine conducted on Sept. 21, 2022 one of the largest prisoners-of-war swaps since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion. At that time 215 people were returned home, including 188 Mariupol defenders. The Azov Regiment commanders who are now in Turkey were also released, as well as ten citizens of other countries, some of whom were threatened with execution by the enemy.