Russia

Zelensky Announces 49 Ukrainian POWs Came Back To Kyiv

.Ukrainian Head of state Volodymyr Zelensky introduced Friday that 49 Ukrainian POWs had been actually come back from Russia, along with AFP watching the team being actually welcomed at the perimeter along with Belarus.Zelensky performed certainly not make clear whether it belonged to a substitution along with Russia, as is actually generally the case, but AFP writers had previously seen Russian hostages being actually loaded onto a bus near the perimeter.It would certainly be the second substitution between the challenging nations due to the fact that Kyiv's surprise attack into Russia's Kursk region.Zelensky stated civilians were additionally among the returnees, consisting of a "woman that was actually hijacked when she concerned handle her sick father.".He stated the substitution likewise included boxers coming from Mariupol's 2022 Azovstal war, along with soldiers, perimeter shields and law enforcement officers.AFP spoke to pair of ladies in their 20s covered in Ukrainian flags as well as receiving florals, who stated they went to the Azovstal vegetation that was up to Russia after a siege in 2022." I am actually lastly home, I can't feel it," stated 28-year-old Tamara Miroshnikova, commander of an equipped car of Ukraine's National Protection, stated.An additional girl, 29-year-old Tetiana Bugay, mentioned she was actually a medic at the Azov brigade that defended Azovstal.Previously, AFP viewed the Ukrainian armed forces steering Russian POWs in a bus, some were wearing bonnets concealing their faces, which were taken out as they were packed in to a minivan.AFP contacted a number of them for a while, and all those that talked stated they were actually captured during the course of Ukraine's unpleasant surprise Kursk offensive last month.