Aug. 16, 2025, 9:54 p.m.
(PHOTO: State Border Guard Service)
Vitaliy Gyrenko, the last serviceman of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine from Zmiinyi Island, who was released on July 23, returned to Izmail, Odesa region.
Since his liberation, he has been undergoing rehabilitation and was met in Izmail by his family and friends, as well as by concerned Izmail residents, Bessarabia INFORM reported.
The defender was greeted by a live orchestra with balloons and flags. At the time Vitaliy was taken prisoner, his wife Olena was seven months pregnant, so it was the first time the border guard saw his son.
Earlier in February 2025, in a commentary to Suspilne, Vitalii Hyrenko's wife said that her husband was the only one who remained in captivity. She learned that Vitaliy was alive later on TV.
Vitaliy's mother lived during the occupation in Kharkiv region and later moved to Izmail. She always believed in her son's return, she went to the Coordination Center, the National Information Bureau, to meet with Dmytro Lubinets, and to the Red Cross.
On the evening of July 23, the ninth stage of the prisoner exchange was completed. Along with Vitaliy Gyrenko, other Ukrainian soldiers who had been in captivity for more than three years returned from captivity that day, including Mariupol defenders and fighters from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and other areas.
The exchange took place within the framework of the agreements between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul, where it was previously agreed to exchange thousands of soldiers for thousands of soldiers and repatriate 6,000 bodies of the dead from each side. The released defenders will undergo the necessary medical examination, receive physical and psychological rehabilitation, as well as all due payments for the entire period of captivity.
Prior to that, the next stage of a large exchange of prisoners in the category of "wounded and seriously ill" under the Istanbul agreements took place on June 14. Servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service, the National Guard of Ukraine and the State Special Transport Service returned home.
Кирило Бойко