There are also defenders of Zmiyne: 189 prisoners returned to Ukraine

The Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported the return of 189 Ukrainians from captivity on New Year's Eve.

This was reported by the press service of the headquarters.

In total, 3,956 people have already returned from Russian captivity as part of the work of the Coordination Center on behalf of the President of Ukraine, of whom 1,358 were released in 2024.

The eleventh exchange in 2024 resulted in the release of:

• 87 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 17 of whom served in territorial defense.
• 43 soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine.
• 33 soldiers of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
• 24 soldiers of the Ukrainian Navy.

Two civilians also returned from captivity. In addition to Mariupol and Zmiinyi Island, the liberated soldiers defended Ukraine in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, and the National Guard served to protect the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Those who were captured in the Kursk region were also returned.

Many Ukrainian citizens were held in Russian captivity for more than two and a half years. The defenders have acute chronic illnesses, the consequences of mine-blast injuries, and severe wounds. This time 173 privates and sergeants and 14 officers were released.

<span>The largest return home of Ukrainian soldiers took place on January 3 this year. Back then, the Coordination Center managed to bring home 230 people.</span>

The prisonerexchange that took place on the night of October 19 allowed 95 Ukrainian defenders to return home. This is the 58th exchange of prisoners since the beginning of the invasion. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the peculiarity of this exchange is that many Ukrainians are returning home who received so-called "sentences" from the aggressor country's judicial system and were "convicted": 28 to long sentences and 20 to life imprisonment for defending their land from the aggressor.

Кирило Бойко