Ukraine returns 103 POWs, including 23 Azov fighters.
Ukraine returned 103 POWs from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sept.
14. "Our people are home," he said in a post on social media. In a separate post, the Azov Angels said 23 of those released were Azov fighters, returning "after more than two years of captivity."
Azov fighters became a symbol of Ukraine's resistance through their tenacious defense of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in the first three months of the all-out war. Russian forces eventually took Mariupol by May 2022, capturing the remaining defenders.
Our people are home. We have successfully brought back another 103 warriors from Russian captivity to Ukraine.
82 privates and sergeants.
21 officers. Defenders of the Kyiv and Donetsk regions, Mariupol and Azovstal, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv regions. Warriors of the... pic.twitter.com/M9YsZjpFct
-- Volodymyr Zelenskyy / ????????? ?????????? (@ZelenskyyUa) September 14, 2024Zelensky said the released POWs consisted of 82 privates and sergeants, and 21 officers, adding they were "defenders of the Kyiv and Donetsk oblasts, Mariupol and Azovstal, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv oblasts.
Warriors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, border guards, and police officers." This is the 57th prisoner exchange since the outbreak of the full-scale war. A total of 3,672 Ukrainians have been brought back from Russian captivity.
Kyiv aims to conduct an all-for-all prisoner exchange, which was one of the subjects at Ukraine's peace summit in Switzerland in mid-June.