Two civilians and 45 defenders from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine were returned from Russian captivity.

Andriy Yermak, Рead of the President’s Office, announced this.

“Today, we also have good news. We managed to bring home 45 of our soldiers of the Armed Forces, National Guard, State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, along with two civilians from captivity,” Yermak said.

They include two officers, 41 privates and sergeants, a civilian employee of Azovstal, and a member of the territorial defense from Kherson.

“We are returning the defenders of Mariupol and Azovstal. There are wounded soldiers. Also, military personnel from the Donetsk direction, including Bakhmut, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv directions,” Yermak added.

Ukrainian children illegally taken to Russia, namely 6-year-old Renat and 10-year-old Varvara, also returned home. Their mother, a combat medic, was released in a major exchange in October 2022.

“She and her husband have long been waiting for the return of their children, whom Russia illegally deported, trying to hide their abduction,” the Head of the President’s Office added.

45 servicemen who were captured during hostilities on the territory of Ukraine were returned to the Russian side.

In total, since February 24 last year, the Ukrainian side has returned 2,576 people from captivity.

This is the 47th successful exchange of POWs.

“Each of them is a small victory for our state, which is preceded by the difficult and enormous work of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War,” Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets noted.

As previously reported, in June, the Embassy of Ukraine in Budapest organized the departure of three Ukrainian prisoners of war from Hungary.