Ukrainian POWs return home after the latest exchange, as families wait for news of loved ones

(26 Jun 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chernihiv region, Ukraine - 26 June 2025
1. Wide of ambulances with Ukrainian POWs arriving at hospital 
2. Wide of families of POWs and missing servicemen congratulating exchanged POWs
3. Mid of medics transporting POW from the ambulance to the wheelchair 
4. Wide of the serviceman transporting POW in a wheelchair 
5. Various of medics transporting POW in a wheelchair 
6. Various of families of POWs and missing servicemen standing with their photos and flags
7. Wide of buses with exchanged Ukrainian POWs arriving at the hospital 
8. Wide of woman looking at buses waiting for her husband 
9. Various of POWs coming out from the bus 
10. Closeup of a woman crying 
11. Wide of POWs walking to the hospital 
12. Wide of families of POWs and missing servicemen standing with their photos and flags
13. Mid of 53-year-old Svitlana Nosal meeting her husband Viktor after 38 months in Russian captivity 
14. Closeup of couple hugging 
15. Mid of families of POWs and missing servicemen standing with their photos and flags
16. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Svitlana Nosal, wife of former Ukrainian POW: 
"It is a real happiness to hug a loved one...to meet and hug. It is happiness. I don't know how to convey my emotions; it is a great happiness."
17. Various of a girl sitting with a poster reading (in Ukrainian): "Welcome home"
18. Various of 11-year-old Hordii Zavatskyi standing with his father Mykola's portrait, who was Russian in captivity for 18 month 
19. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Tetiana Zavatska, wife of Ukrainian serviceman Mykola Zavatskyi: 
"My husband, Mykola Serhiyovych Zavatskyi, is a tank gunner. He disappeared almost 18 months ago in the village of Bohdanivka, Bakhmut district of Donetsk region. We do not lose faith, we wait for him with impatience. Arriving at each exchange, we wait, believe, love, pray not only for him, but for all our missing soldiers and those who defend our Motherland."
20. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian), Hordii Zavatskyi, 11, son of Ukrainian serviceman Mykola Zavatskyi: 
"I'm here because I want my dad back, so I can see him, hug him..."
21. Various of Tetiana Zavatska showing the albums with missing Ukrainian servicemen from her hometown UPSOUND (Ukrainian): 
"We stand not only for ourselves, but for those who have disappeared from our country. These are albums from the city of Pryluky. This is my husband, and these are those who have disappeared in different parts of our Ukraine."
22. Various of Tetiana Zavatska showing the albums with missing Ukrainian servicemen from her hometown UPSOUND (Ukrainian): 
"Also another album. More than 30 photos. This is from another district. Also our defenders who disappeared in different directions."
23. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian), Tetiana Zavatska, wife of Ukrainian serviceman Mykola Zavatskyi: 
"We understand that everyone who looks at this album may recognize someone and this will be a little bit of hope. Therefore, we wait, we believe, we love, we pray. We thank our defenders for their work. We thank them for the fact that our children can study and we can live under a peaceful sky, even when it is sometimes not peaceful."
24. Various of a woman standing with a portrait of her son 
STORYLINE:
Ukraine on Thursday returned home a new group of prisoners of war as part of an ongoing large-scale exchange with Russia, the country’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said.

The release, carried out under the Istanbul agreements, included wounded troops and soldiers with health issues, as well as several defenders under the age of 25.
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