Freed Azovstal soldiers returning to Ukraine

20:30, 08.07.2023

Freed Azovstal soldiers are returning to Ukraine from Turkey. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, returning home from a visit to Turkey, brought with him five commanders of Ukraine’s former garrison in Mariupol, forced to live in Turkey under the terms of a prisoner exchange last year.

“We are returning home from Türkiye and bringing our heroes home. Ukrainian soldiers Denys Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Serhiy Volynsky, Oleh Khomenko, Denys Shleha. They will finally be with their relatives. Glory to Ukraine!,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

The Ukrainian defenders, who held out in tunnels and bunkers under a steel plant, were finally ordered by Kyiv to surrender in May last year.

Moscow freed some of them in September last year in a prisoner swap brokered by Ankara, under terms that required the commanders to remain in Turkey until the end of the war.

World

«Азовсталь»

Volodymyr Zelenskyy