June 26 POW exchange in photos
Serhii Okunev / NV
With the latest prisoner-of-war
exchange between Ukraine and Russia, 160 Ukrainian servicemembers returned
home, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on June 26.
The released included personnel from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State Transport Special Service, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service. Many had defended Mariupol, and others had fought in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, and Sumy oblasts.
"Nearly 99% of those freed were captured in 2022. They were held in the most difficult conditions for more than four years," Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said.
NV’s Serhii Okunev recorded freed defenders singing the
national anthem together, biting into apples for the first time in years, and
calling relatives. Fighters described how their Russian captors pressured them
and tried to convince them that Ukraine no longer existed. Hundreds of people
greeted the freed service members on the highway.
A previous exchange on June 5 returned 185 service members
and one civilian. Many of those released then were also captured in 2022.
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