Volodymyr Zelensky announces the return to Ukraine of ten civilians detained by Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday June 28 the release and return to Ukraine of ten civilians who were prisoners in Russia and Belarus. “We managed to bring back ten more of our fellow citizens from Russian captivity”he wrote on social media, adding that they had been “released and have now returned to Ukraine.”

Russia and Ukraine, at war for more than two years, regularly exchange captured soldiers but the return of civilians is much rarer. The agreement, which Moscow has not yet reported, was produced with the support of the Vatican, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.

The released detainees had been captured in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, in occupied southern Ukraine or, for five of them, in Belarus, a faithful ally of Russia. Two Catholic priests, Bogdan Geleta and Ivan Levytsky, are notably part of the list, according to the Ukrainian president.

Volodymyr Zelensky did not say anything about the terms of the agreement, and did not reveal whether Ukraine had, in exchange, released Russian prisoners. In terms of civilian releases, there are few precedents between the two countries since February 2022 and the start of the Russian invasion.