Ukraine and Russia begin the largest prisoner-of-war exchange since the invasion

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/23/nx-s1-5408714/ukraine-russia-prisoners-
exchange

A CITY IN NORTHERN UKRAINE — Ukraine and Russia began the exchange of 
1,000 prisoners of war Friday, the largest such swap since the beginning 
of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"We are bringing our people home," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 
wrote on social media, after the soldiers had crossed into Ukraine. 
Shortly after they had crossed, he posted several photos of the freed 
Ukrainians, many draped in the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag.

He said 390 people were included in the first of a three-day exchange. 
"This agreement was reached at a meeting in Turkey," he added, "and it is 
important to fully implement it."

The Ukrainian authorities asked NPR not to disclose the location out of 
security concerns. An area with so many Ukrainian soldiers and civilians 
gathered in one place could be at risk of a strike.

This POW exchange was the only deal made in Istanbul last week during the 
two countries' first direct negotiations about a ceasefire since the early 
days of Russia's 2022 invasion.

Even before the exchange was announced on Friday, President Trump took to 
social media saying it was completed.

Ukrainian authorities said 270 soldiers and 120 civilians were included in 
Friday's exchange.

Zelenskyy's office said earlier this month that more than 8,000 Ukrainian 
soldiers are estimated to have been captured by Russia since the beginning 
of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. According to Ukraine's human 
rights ombudsman, more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are also in Russian 
captivity.

One of those civilians is Volodymyr Mykolayenko, the former mayor of the 
southern city of Kherson. His niece Hanna Korsun-Samchuk told NPR that 
Russian forces took him away after occupying the city for several months 
in 2022.

"I've been trying to raise the issue of civilian prisoners because there's 
no easy procedure for exchanging them," she said on Monday in an interview 
in Kherson.

Dozens of Ukrainian families waited for hours in a leafy courtyard for the 
liberated prisoners of war, hoping their loved ones would be among them. 
They held banners, flags and posters emblazoned with images of their loved 
ones, all soldiers.

Katya Kobel, who is from the northern city of Chernihiv, wept as she spoke 
about her husband, Hryhori, who has been in Russian captivity since 
December 2023. She says she found he was captured in the eastern Donetsk 
region after receiving text messages with photos of her husband from a 
Russian number.

"They told me, 'We have captured your man,' " she said.

Natalia Apetyk is hoping her 23-year-old son, Yelizar, will finally come 
home. He has been in Russian captivity since 2022, when he was captured 
while defending eastern Ukraine from a Russian incursion.

"Today it is exactly three years since his last call, and tomorrow it will 
be three years since he disappeared," she said.

Eighteen-year-old Milena Moroz is holding a photograph of her father, 
Yevhen, who was taken prisoner in February of this year in eastern 
Ukraine. She says she didn't see her father as much as she would have 
liked, since her parents are divorced.

She is waiting to tell him something important, something she wished she 
had told him more often: "I love you, Dad."


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama 
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.