Ten Ukrainian Civilians Freed from Russian Captivity
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday the release and return to Ukraine of ten civilians, including two priests and a local official, who were taken prisoner in Russia and Belarus.
Russia and Ukraine, who have been at war for more than two years, regularly exchange captured soldiers; however, the return of civilians is much rarer, writes AFP, cited by news.ro.
"We managed to bring back another ten of our citizens from Russian captivity," he wrote on social media, adding that they were "released and have now returned to Ukraine."
According to Volodymyr Zelensky, the agreement, which Moscow has not yet announced, was concluded with the support of the Vatican.
The released detainees were captured in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, in the occupied south of Ukraine, and, in the case of five of them, in Belarus, a loyal ally of Russia.
Among them is Nariman Djelal, a vice-president of the Medjlis, the Assembly of the Crimean Tatars, who was arrested in 2021. The Tatars are a historically Muslim community from the peninsula. Two Catholic priests, Bogdan Geleta and Ivan Levitsky, are also on the list, according to the Ukrainian president. Two other civilians released were captured "in 2017-2018," he added.
Volodymyr Zelensky did not disclose the terms of the agreement or if Ukraine released any Russian prisoners in exchange. There have been few precedents for the release of civilians between the two countries since February 2022 and the beginning of the Russian invasion.
The mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, was exchanged for Russian prisoners in the first weeks of the conflict. He was captured when Russian soldiers entered his city in the south of Ukraine, which has been occupied since then.
In September 2022, Viktor Medvedchuk, a close friend of Vladimir Putin, was also exchanged by Ukraine, along with Russian soldiers, for Ukrainian prisoners.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
