Azov soldiers, human rights activist Butkevych among those returned in 190-person prisoner swap
Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect Ukraine's confirmation of the prisoner exchange, as well as additional details on those released.
Ukraine and Russia on Oct. 18 conducted their 58th prisoner exchange, involving 190 prisoners of war, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced.
Ukrainian human rights activist and servicemember, Maksym Butkevych, was among the 95 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were returned to Ukraine on Oct. 18, Butkevych's family confirmed.
Zelensky also confirmed that Azov Regiment soldiers - who defended Mariupol and Azovstal at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion and spent over two and a half years in captivity - were among those who were returned on Oct. 18.
Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment, later confirmed that 34 Azov soldiers were returned from captivity.
The Azov fighters became a symbol of Ukraine's resistance through their tenacious defense of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in the first three months of the all-out war. Russian forces eventually overtook Mariupol in May 2022, capturing the remaining defenders.
Ukrainian soldiers from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Kherson oblasts were also included in the exchange.
It was not immediately clear which prisoners, among the 95 held by Ukraine, were returned to Russia.
The United Arab Emirates reportedly assisted in brokering the 190-person prisoner exchange.
Human Rights Center ZMINA, the organization that human rights activist Maksym Butkevych co-founded, announced Butkevych's return from Russian captivity, where he has held since being captured in June 2022.
Butkevych is a well-known human rights activist and journalist specializing in the protection of refugees.
Before the war, Butkevych worked with a Ukrainian NGO supporting internally displaced persons, as well as at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ukraine. He decided to enlist in the Ukrainian military after the full-scale invasion.
After being captured in the summer of 2022, a Russian-appointed court forced him to plead guilty to allegedly firing a grenade launcher at an apartment building.
Russian-appointed authorities in occupied Luhansk and Donetsk sentenced Butkevych to 13 years in prison in March 2023, in what Amnesty International deemed "a grave miscarriage of justice."
Following his arrest, Butkevych's whereabouts were unknown for long periods of time until it was revealed that he was being held in a penal colony in Krasnyi Luch in Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast.
Following the return of the soldiers, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets confirmed that 3,767 Ukrainian prisoners of war have returned home since the start of the start of full-scale war.
Earlier on Oct. 18, officials from the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of the Prisoners of War said that Ukraine has repatriated the bodies of 501 soldiers who died fighting against Russia.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
