"Hope of coming home kept us going": Stories of soldiers brought back on first day of large-scale POW exchange

Yahoo

24-05-2025

A total of 390 Ukrainians, including reconnaissance men and marines, were brought home during the exchange of prisoners on 23 May 2025. Each of them went through difficult trials, including illnesses, significant weight loss and prolonged separation from their families.
Source: Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia (UP.Life)
"I'll fatten you up"
Oleksandr came back to his wife's arms after 22 months of Russian captivity. The woman tearfully met her husband, for whom she had been looking for a long time.
Olena told Slidstvo.info journalists that she had met defenders several times when they were brought back from captivity, but this time she did not expect to see her beloved.
"You can't live without faith [in captivity]; you must believe every day. I had someone to remember – my family gave me strength," Oleksandr said when asked whether he hoped to be brought back home.
The defender said he dreamed of coming home more than anything else and admitted that he would like to eat dressed herring and Olivier salad.
"I will fatten you up," his wife Olena said with a smile.
"My dad is finally home"
Among the defenders who have been brought back home is Ihor Kupriienko, a soldier of the 36th Separate Brigade of the Armed Forces, who was taken prisoner more than three years ago. The last time he contacted his family was in April 2022, Ukrinform news agency reports.
"On Marine Corps Day, after more than three years of captivity, my dad is finally home," Ihor's daughter Anna Fedirko wrote on Instagram.
She said that over the years, the family had been fighting for Ihor's release from captivity. To do this, the family constantly participated in actions and meetings with the Coordination Centre.
Anna and her husband were trapped under the rubble of a house in Zaporizhzhia in March 2023, which was attacked by a Russian missile. The attack killed 13 people and completely destroyed one entrance.
It was then that pregnant Anna and her husband were rescued from under the rubble of the five-storey building by the State Emergency Service.
No hugs because he is seriously ill
Marine Petro was brought back after more than three years in captivity. The defender's wife, Olena, said she went to the exchange without any hope of seeing her husband because she was afraid of being disappointed.
"I didn't even think about it. I didn't want to be completely overwhelmed if he wasn't there. I was just calmly going to meet the marines," Olena said.
Unexpectedly, her beloved was among the soldiers exchanged in the thousand-for-thousand swap.
Olena saw her husband only through the hospital window. They could not even hug because Petro was seriously ill and was infected with tuberculosis in captivity. The soldier was brought back to Ukraine by ambulance.
During the occupation, he was a partisan and later became an intelligence agent
After nearly two years in captivity, 37-year-old scout Mykola Znaida came back to Ukraine. For the past six months, his relatives had had no information about him.
At the start of the full-scale invasion, the village of Ozera in Kyiv Oblast, where Mykola came from, was occupied. Initially, he assisted servicemen guarding Antonivka airport, later hiding them at his home.
Mykola then began a partisan struggle against the Russians but later joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and became an intelligence officer.
He performed combat tasks on the Donetsk front – in Bakhmut, Kramatorsk, Lyman and Serebrianka Forest in Luhansk Oblast, where he was captured in 2023.
Since November 2024, Mykola's relatives had no information about his whereabouts, except that in December he was transported from a prison camp in Sverdlovsk (Russia) in an unknown direction.
Mykola's father also served in the army but resigned in May 2023.
"The hope to come home kept us going"
Soldier Mykola also came back to Ukraine.
"Thirty-seven months of exhaustion. It was hard. Coming home was enchanting, especially the journey here. They fed us so much propaganda, especially before leaving.
But we saw so many people – whole villages – who came out to meet us. People were crying and smiling. It's very emotional," said the defender.
Mykola says he was captured in April 2022 from the Illich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol. He jokes that after captivity, his physical condition became "very athletic"– he lost nearly half his body weight, dropping from 112 to 65 kilograms.
After the exchange, he managed to contact loved ones and learned about his two brothers, who also serve in the army. He says he was deeply worried about his relatives – his older brother remains in captivity.
Mykola and his friend admit that thoughts of Ukraine helped them endure captivity.
"We were sustained by our ability to resist and the hope of coming home, where loved ones are waiting. [...]
[In captivity - ed.] we recalled what was good in Ukraine," the defenders said.
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