Today at 17:34
On June 28, Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Ukraine managed to liberate 10 more citizens of Ukraine despite all the challenges of the process as Ukraine seeks to return all its people.
He wrote this on his X account.
“We have managed to free 10 more of our people from Russian captivity, despite all the difficulties. Nariman Dzhelyal, Deputy Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, was captured in Crimea back in 2021. Olena Piekh and Valeriy Matiushenko, civilians, have been held captive since 2017-2018. Bohdan Heleta and Ivan Levytskyi, priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, were captured in Berdyansk for resisting the occupiers,” the Ukrainian President stated.
Valeriy Matiushenko had been Russia’s prisoner since July 2017, which means that he was held captive for almost 7 years.
5 more people have returned from Belarus where they were deprived of freedom, they are Mykola Shvets, Natalia Zakharenko, Pavlo Kupriienko, Liudmyla Honcharenko, and Kateryna Briukhanova.
“I am grateful to everyone who helped. I thank our team that works on freeing the captives. I would also like to recognize the Holy See’s efforts to bring these people home. We will definitely free all our people,” Zelenskyy emphasized.
The Vatican and the United Arab Emirates facilitated the exchange which is part of the major exchange that was launched on June 25 when 90 Ukrainian POWs were released.
