Ninth stage of POW exchange takes place
(Information from the General Staff added in last two paragraphs)
The latest, ninth stage of the exchange between Ukraine and the Russian Federation has taken place, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said on his official Telegram channel.
"Today, the ninth stage of the exchange, agreed upon in Istanbul, has taken place. Seriously ill and seriously injured defenders are returning home. We can already talk about the details - over all stages of the latest Istanbul agreements, we managed to return more than 1,000 of our people. For a thousand families, it is a joy to hug their loved ones again. Thank you to everyone who worked on this," Zelenskyy said on Thursday night.
The president noted that among the returning defenders, "a significant number have been in captivity for more than three years."
"Everyone will receive the necessary support and medical care," he said.
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as a result of the agreements in Istanbul, Ukrainian defenders were returned from Russian captivity - wounded and seriously ill soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Navy, the Territorial Defense Forces, the State Border Guard Service, the National Guard, and the National Police. They defended Ukraine in all key areas: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv.
Among the liberated defenders are soldiers, sergeants, and officers. Some spent more than three years in captivity. The youngest is 27, the oldest is 66.