Odesa Rally Demands Action for POWs as Ukraine Secures 4,306 Releases

A rally in support of prisoners of war, which brought together relatives of the defenders and concerned Odessans to remind them of those still in captivity, took place in the center of Odesa on March 23.

Relatives of the prisoners of war are closely monitoring the exchanges, but believe that their number remains critically low, according to Novyny.LIVE.

"Our guys have been in captivity for almost three years. We come to these actions because we cannot remain silent. Imagine that your son, husband, brother or father is in captivity. You don't know what conditions they're in, you don't know what's wrong with them, and time is running out. Therefore, we have no right to stop. The last exchange brought home only three Azov men. This is a pittance compared to the number of our guys waiting for release. We have repeatedly appealed to the authorities, international organizations and diplomats. We will go out again and again until all of them are returned," explains Anna Pazhera, the organizer of the action.

The relatives of the prisoners of war have once again appealed to the authorities to intensify the work on the exchanges. They emphasize that the country should not forget about those who went to defend it and ended up in captivity. The protesters emphasized that they will continue to take to the streets until all the defenders return home.

Meanwhile, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine has returned 4306 prisoners from Russian captivity. On March 19, the last prisoner exchange between Ukraine and the Russian Federation took place in the format of 175 for 175. We managed to release soldiers of the Armed Forces, National Guard, TRO, Navy and border guards. As well as the defenders of Mariupol, those who participated in the Kursk operation, and operations in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Кирило Бойко