Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Ukraine 23 October returned from Russian captivity 270 citizens, among whom 261 a serviceman and nine civilians. Some of the freed defenders have severe injuries and grave diagnoses.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for the Main Directorate of Intelligence, spoke about the health of the freed civilians in an interview with the publication "Novyny.LIVE".
What is known about the severely wounded defenders?
According to him, negotiations were preceded by a long pause, and the exchange itself proved extremely complex. All evacuated fighters and civilians are immediately provided with medical and psychological assistance on site.
The department’s representative emphasized that some of the returned defenders require urgent and serious treatment. A whole queue of ambulances arrived on site.
There are seriously ill and seriously wounded. Among the seriously ill are people with tuberculosis. There are freed defenders with amputations.
— noted Yusov.
Most of the freed were held in enemy captivity since 2022 year. More than 220 people are defenders of Mariupol from various branches of the armed forces, including the Ground Forces, the National Guard, and the Territorial Defense.
Also among the freed are five Ukrainians who survived the Olenivka terrorist attack. Separately, the GUR spokesperson noted the return of 36 officers (it should be noted that the head of the Office of the President, Kyrylo Budanov, spoke of 38), calling it one of the most difficult directions in the negotiation process. Yusov stressed that the Coordination Headquarters is already preparing for further negotiations and exchanges.
As a reminder, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets called this exchange historic, because it made it possible to return the largest number of convicted servicemen. 86 people unjustly sentenced by the occupiers and one defender against whom the aggressor country was pursuing criminal charges returned home.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "У ГУР розповіли про важкий стан деяких звільнених з полону захисників". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Channel 24.