Prisoner exchange on June 26. Ukraine returns military under 25 and wounded – photos
A new prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia took place on Thursday, June 26. This was reported by to by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
According to the President, soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard and the State Border Guard Service are returning home. Most of them have been in captivity since 2022.
"We are doing everything to find everyone, to check the information on each name. We have to bring all our people home. I thank everyone who helps us in this," Zelensky wrote.
The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War clarified that this is a stage of a large prisoner exchange in accordance with the agreements in Istanbul. A group of defenders under the age of 25, as well as soldiers with injuries and health problems, were returned home.
The vast majority of the released defenders were held in captivity for more than three years. Many of them were captured during the defense of Mariupol.
The specificity of today's exchange is that we managed to bring home young soldiers. The youngest is 24 years old, he was captured during the defense of Mariupol in April 2022, at the age of 21. The oldest defender to be returned home is 62 years old.
They also managed to free from captivity the National Guard who guarded the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Among those released that day are officers.
In general, Ukrainians who defended the country in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Kherson, Kyiv and Sumy regions are returning home.
- The process of exchanges under the Istanbul Agreements began on June 9. Then the first group of wounded, seriously ill and under 25 years old was returned home.
- Since then, six stages of exchanges have already taken place. During the previous one, on June 20, Ukraine returned another group of seriously wounded and seriously ill defenders from Russian captivity.