Russia and Ukraine exchanged 95 prisoners of war on each side this evening, including human rights activist Maksim Butkevich, who joined the Ukrainian army in 2022.
The operation took place under the mediation of the United Arab Emirates.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on his Telegram channel the return home of soldiers defending Mariopol, Azovstal, Donetsk, Lugansk, Karkiv, Kiev, Chernguiv and Kherson.
The Ukrainian Presidency's Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War explained that this exchange allowed “many Ukrainians sentenced to long prison terms” and even life imprisonment “in their own land”, occupied by Russia, to return home.
Among those released from Russian captivity - 69 sergeants and soldiers and 26 officers - are national guardsmen, sailors, soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, border guards and representatives of other units of the Security and Defense Forces.
Also among those released is Maksim Butkevich, a human rights defender and co-founder of the ZIMA Center for Human Rights, according to his father.
In 2023, he was sentenced by Russia in the occupied Lugansk region to 13 years in prison for allegedly injuring two women in Siverskodonetsk by firing a mortar at the entrance to a housing estate.
This is the 58th exchange organized by Ukraine, which has so far managed to free 3,767 people from Russian captivity.
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