Zmiyne defender from Izmail, the last to be released from captivity, returned to service

Vitaliy Gyrenko, the last of the defenders of Zmiinyi Island in Odesa region, who was captured on the first day of the full-scale invasion, has returned to service.

This was reported by the Suspilne media outlet.

He noted that his wife was against his return to service, but he could not do otherwise.

"I thought about it for a long time, and my wife was against it. Well, because she has gone through a lot during this time. And she was afraid for me, the war, she talked me out of it. I have two brothers, a nephew who serves, all my relatives. I could not do otherwise," said Vitaliy Gyrenko.

Vitaliy Hyrenko, the last serviceman of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine from Zmiinyi Island, who was released on July 23, 2025, returned to Izmail, Odesa region, in August.

He spent more than three and a half years in various places of detention in Russia. First, the prisoners were taken to Sevastopol, where they were held for less than a month. After that, they were transferred to a tent city in the Belgorod region, and later to a pre-trial detention center. Gyrenko spent more than two years in the colony in Oleksiyivka. He was allowed to move around the territory only by running, without the right to look up. During this time, Gyrenko was allowed to write six letters to his family. Only two of them reached the family. The defense lawyer was able to make a video call to his wife for the first time only a year and a half after his capture.

In February 2025, in a commentary to Suspilne, Vitaliy Gyrenko'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, as well as fighters from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and other areas.

Кирило Бойко