Ukrainian journalist and human rights activist Maksym Butkevych said he did not know he was going to be released in a prisoner swap until he was already in transit.
Russia and Ukraine on Oct. 18 conducted their 58th prisoner exchange, involving 190 detainees, including Butkevych. The activist was serving a 13-year sentence in a Russian penal colony at the time of his release.
The exchange came without warning, Butkevych told the Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske.
"No, I didn't know, it was unexpected," he said.
"Yesterday morning, after the inspection, they told me that I was leaving in half an hour, but they didn't tell me where. Accordingly, I packed my things because I thought I was being transported, not for an exchange. We found out about the exchange by accident on the way. It was a double surprise."
Butkevych was one of 95 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) returned on Oct. 18. The list also included 34 members of the Azov Regiment, who defended the southern city of Mariupol in the early months of Russia's full-scale invasion.
Before the war, Butkevych worked with a Ukrainian NGO supporting internally displaced persons and with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ukraine. He enlisted in the Ukrainian military following the Feb. 2022 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 oblasts 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.
Butkevych said his release proves that it is possible to free more imprisoned Ukrainians.
"I hope this will give hope to others," he said.
"I was released together with a colleague from a colony where more than 40 convicted prisoners of war are held on trumped-up cases. It is very important for them to know that this is possible and that the exchange is taking place."
According to the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, many of the prisoners released in the latest exchange had received lengthy prison sentences from Russian authorities. Twenty of the 95 freed Ukrainians had been handed long-term prison sentences while 28 were sentenced to life in prison.
Dmytro Basmat
(Updated: )
