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June 12 () –
The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, has reported this Monday that 2,526 Ukrainian soldiers imprisoned by Russian forces have returned to their homes, as he has shown through a video on his social networks with images of the last exchange of prisoners of war between Kiev and Moscow.
“Every time we recover our people from Russian captivity, we remember our fundamental objective: we will not leave anyone of ours, or anything from Ukraine, for the enemy,” he emphasized in a message on his Telegram account.
Zelensky has valued the work of the negotiation teams and has thanked all those who have been involved in the tasks to make it possible for Ukrainian prisoners to leave Russian detention centers.
“I thank all the warriors who ensure Ukraine has a ‘swap fund’ for the liberation of our people!” he wrote. “We remember all of them, we are looking for each and every one of them, and we have to bring them all back. We will do it!” said the Ukrainian president.
The figure of 2,526 Ukrainian soldiers that President Zelenski has made public this Monday has been reached after almost a hundred of them that were handed over to the Kiev authorities the day before. As part of that exchange, 94 other Russian soldiers were also released.
The liberated soldiers were captured in Mariúpol, Chernobyl, the island of Serpents, Bakhmut and Azovstal. Some of them had arrived at the Azovstal factory complex by helicopter to support the Ukrainian forces that were holding out there when it was already surrounded by the Russians.
