Yesterday, 108 women who had been held in Russian captivity returned to Ukraine, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, reported. He called this exchange of captives “particularly emotional and truly special.”
“It was the first all-female exchange. Mothers and daughters were in captivity, and their families were waiting for them. 37 evacuees from Azovstal, 11 officers, 85 privates and sergeants,” Radio Liberty is quoting Yermak.
The vast majority of freed Ukrainian women – 96 – serve in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Navy, the National Guard, the State Special Transport Service, and the State Border Service.
“Among those released were women who were illegally imprisoned in ORDLO [the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts occupied by Russia after 2014] and who were captured even before the large-scale invasion. Ukrainian people had been apprehended in pseudo-republics since 2019 for an ‘extremely pro-Ukrainian position,’ which was expressed in the transportation of humanitarian aid for orphans, fabricated ‘espionage’ and ‘terrorism’ charges,” Yermak added.
He also called the process of this exchange “nervous,” but did not specify who Ukraine returned to the Russian side.
One of those released was a paramedic from Mariupol, Viktoria Obidina, the mother of four-year-old Alisa who became known to the whole world due to a viral video filmed by Azovstal defenders. In May, the Russians did not let Viktoria go during the evacuation and sent her to a filtration camp. Her little daughter Alisa had to get out of the occupied city on her own.
