Four soldiers hiding from Russians evacuated from occupation – video

Four servicemen who had been hiding from Russian invaders for years have been returned from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. This was reported to by Commander of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksiy Neizhpapa.

According to him, the Presidential Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Servicemen and Their Families Olha Reshetylova received information that the twin brother of a newly exchanged marine, who was seriously wounded in the east in 2022, was hospitalized and, thanks to caring doctors, was hidden from the aggressor state's security forces.

Neizhpapa decided to organize the evacuation of the soldier. Later it became known that, along with his twin brother, there were three other soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine in the hospital who had been forced to hide there for more than three years.

The Navy Commander, together with Reshetylova and the NGU Commander Oleksandr Pivnenko, set up a coordination headquarters and engaged special units to evacuate the defenders.

A marine, three National Guardsmen and a medical worker who helped to hide the military were evacuated from the occupation. They are now safe .

The operation to rescue the defenders was carried out by the Navy's special intelligence unit "Angels".

Neizhpapa said that the operation was planned and divided into several stages, taking into account the illegal status of all persons, high activity of hostilities, which was complicated by intensified filtering measures by the Russian special services.

• On August 14, Ukraine returned 84 people – military and civilians – from Russian captivity. Some of them had been held captive for more than 10 years.
• On August 24, military and eight civilians, including former Kherson mayor Mykolayenko and journalist Khylyuk, returned from Russian captivity.