The Ukrainian authorities announced the return home of 130 prisoners who were in Russian captivity as part of an exchange on the occasion of Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated this Sunday on Easter Sunday.
“A great exchange of prisoners for Easter. We recovered 130 of ours. It happened in the last few days in various stages. Military, border guards, national guards, sailors and employees of the Special State Transportation Service,” he wrote in his account. from Telegram the president of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak.
Among those released are soldiers and officers captured on the Bakhmut, Soledar, Zaporizhia and Kherson fronts, it added. “Ours are coming home. It’s Easter. The quintessence of this holiday is hope. This is exactly what the relatives of the prisoners who waited for them for so long felt,” Yermak said. He added that “the lives of our people are of the greatest value to us” and also quoted the words of the president, Volodimir Zelensky: “Heroes must live.”
The released prisoners range in age from 21 to 58 years old and some of them are injured and have lost limbs, reported the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
This institution published photos on its Telegram account in which part of the released prisoners can be seen being greeted with hugs upon arrival in Ukrainian territory and posing with that country’s flags after getting off a bus.
Ukrainian authorities did not say how many Russian prisoners of war were released as part of the exchange.
