Ten Ukrainian prisoners of war return home after years of being held captive in Russia

Some of those released were captured ahead of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

It is rare to know when people detained after 2014 will be released Russia illegally annexed CrimeaBut it is known that the Vatican has participated in his release.

Two of those freed, Ivan Levitsky and Bohdan Geleta, were tonsured monks. Levitsky was detained inside his church in the occupied city of Berdyansk in the Zaporizhia region in 2022.

Among those released was Nariman Dzheliyal, deputy head of the Mejlis, the representative body of the Crimean Tatar community.

After Russia annexed the peninsula the body was moved to Kiev. Dzhezhiliyal, who continued to live in Crimea Despite the occupation, he was kidnapped a year before the war.

“I was in captivity, where many Ukrainians live,” he said. “We can’t leave them there, because Both the psychological and physical conditions there are very frightening,

In the airport’s main lobby, where pre-war advertisements still hang, former prisoners are wrapped in blue and yellow flags they were reunited with their families And he called those who could not be there.

“I really want to hug you. I’ll be with you soon, mom,” Isabella Pekh, daughter of freelance art historian Olena Pekh, said via video call. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t see you here.”

Isabella Piekh’s mother was detained in the occupied part of the Donetsk region. For almost six years, Isabella gave speeches at international conferences He sought help from foreign ambassadors to free his motherUltimately his efforts were successful.

,those were six years of hell Which cannot be described in words. But I knew that I have my homeland, that I have people who love me, that I have my daughter,” Olena Pekh said.

According to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War of Ukraine, so far 3,310 Ukrainians have been released from Russian captivity.But thousands of Ukrainians, both civilians and soldiers, remain in captivity.