The head of the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky Andriy Yermak said on Saturday that 45 Ukrainian prisoners of war have returned home from Russian captivity as a result of a prisoner exchange, Kyiv Independent reports.

Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated from Azovstal.Photo: Oleksiy Kudenko / Sputnik / Profimedia

Yermak noted that all the prisoners of war, including 10 officers, were defending the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol, Donetsk region, when it was surrounded by Russian troops in 2022.

One of the prisoners of war who returned to the country spent 2.5 years in Russian captivity before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After the exchange, he returned to Ukraine, defended the Azovstal plant and was captured again.

Among the freed Ukrainians are 42 men and three women, Yermak said.

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