Evgeniy Maloletka Instagram – SUMY, Ukraine
Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war on Friday, each sending back 75 POWs in the first such swap in the past three months.
But as well sides swap bodies of their fallen soldiers. Ukraine returned 212 corpses, and Russia — 45.
The Ukrainians were returned on several buses that drove into the northern Sumy region. As they disembarked, they shouted joyfully and called their families to tell them they were home. Some knelt and kissed the ground, while many wrapped themselves in yellow-blue flags.
They hugged one another, breaking into tears. Many appeared emaciated and poorly dressed.
Among those who were returned home to Ukraine on Friday was Roman Onyschuk, an IT worker who joined Ukrainian forces as a volunteer at the start of the Russian invasion. He was captured in March 2022 in the Kharkiv region.
“I just want to hear my wife’s voice, my son’s voice. I missed his three birthdays,” he said. In the more than 800 days he spent in captivity, he never communicated with his family and he doesn’t know what city they are in now, he said.
“It’s a little bit overwhelming,” Onyschuk added.
Dmytro Kantypenko was captured on Snake Island in the Black Sea in the first days of the war. He was among those freed Friday and said he called his mother to tell her he was back in Ukraine.
“I’ll be home soon,” he said, wiping away his tears. He learned that his wife had fled to Lithuania with their son. The Kantypenko family is from Izium in the Kharkiv region, which survived Russian occupation.
Kantypenko said the Russians woke him up in the middle of the night without any explanation, giving him a short time to change his clothes before they were on their way.
Ukrainians with blue and yellow flags took to the streets and loudly welcomed their defenders home.
Text @h_arhirova
#ukraine #russia #invasion #pow | Posted on 31/May/2024 21:34:05
