UKRAINE, Jun 19 — Ukraine brings home another group of severely wounded soldiers from the Russian captivity, reported the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

This is the fifth round of prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia after negotiations in Istanbul on June 2.

On June 10, Ukraine exchanged the first group of severely wounded and critically ill prisoners.

Today, Ukraine conducted the fourth round in this category.

“These are warriors of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service. Most of them had been held captive since 2022 (the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion — ed.),” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president.

This time, Ukraine returned defenders who had fought in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kyiv regions.

Some of the exchanged soldiers were taken prisoner by the Russian troops after Mariupol’s defense in May 2022, having spent over three years in captivity. 

The names of Mariupol’s defenders rarely appear on Russia’s exchange lists. For the past three years, Ukrainians have been regularly organizing demonstrations to remind the public about them, in particular about captured Azov Brigade soldiers (one of the brigades that was involved in defense of Mariupol).

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