As Ukraine marks 33 years of independence on August 24, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced that 115 Ukrainian prisoners were released in a swap with Russia.
“Another 115 of our defenders have returned home today. They are warriors from the National Guard, the Armed Forces, the Navy, and the State Border Guard Service,” Zelenskiy said in a message on X.
“We remember everyone. We are searching for them and making every effort to bring them all back,” he said.
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Some of the released Ukrainian prisoners spoke to RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service from a location Ukrainian authorities requested not be disclosed.
Ihor, who provided only his first name, said he was captured while serving as a conscript in National Guard Unit 3057, part of the Ukrainian forces that defended the city of Mariupol and surrendered to Russia in May 2022.
According to a Ukrainian governmental body that oversees the treatment of prisoners of war, 82 of the freed Ukrainian soldiers had fought in Mariupol.
“They led us out of the prison cell at 5 a.m. There were no words, no explanation. They took us to the office and gave us our uniforms to put them on. Then they took us somewhere in cars,” Ihor said. “No one told us whether that was a simple transfer to another prison or a prisoner swap. We arrived at an air base and were put on a plane. The plane arrived at another air base. More than 100 of us gathered there. Only then we understood that this was a prisoner swap.”
Andriy, another freed soldier who gave only his first name, said he served in the same National Guard unit.
“I kept dreaming about it all the time in captivity — that I’ll be back on August 24,” said Andriy, who struggled to answer in Ukrainian because he had become accustomed to speaking Russian while in captivity. “It’s a feeling beyond description.”
Zelenskiy, referring to Russian troops who have been taken prisoner during Ukraine’s ongoing incursion into Russia’s Kursk region that started on August 6, said in his post on X that “I am grateful to each unit that replenishes our exchange fund.”
Ukraine previously said that Russian soldiers taken prisoner in Kursk would be used as an “exchange fund” to release Ukrainian troops from Russian captivity.
Separately, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it received 115 of its own troops, who had been captured in the Kursk region, in exchange for the same number of Ukrainian war prisoners.
It said the prisoner exchange was mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
Zelenskiy also highlighted the heroic resistance of his people in the face of Russia’s unprovoked invasion in remarks dedicated to Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24 — a day that also marked the somber milestone of 30 months of war.
“Independence is in every one of us. And united, we can win…. We withstood, restrained, and repulsed the enemy, and now we are pushing it in its swamps. We know what independence is, how difficult it is to revive it, how difficult it is to protect. But we also know that everything depends on us,” he said.
No festivities or parades are scheduled, with many Ukrainians preferring to mark 33 years of independence by honoring those killed in the war.
Ukraine says its incursion in Russia’s border region of Kursk — which took Moscow by surprise, shocked Russia’s ruling elites, and brought more than 1,260 square kilometers and 92 settlements under its control — is meant to establish a buffer zone that will put an end to Moscow’s incessant shelling of Ukrainian civilian areas and infrastructure from across the border.
Ukraine’s leadership has repeatedly clarified the move is not aimed at gaining territory, unlike Russia’s full-scale invasion that started on February 24, 2022, exactly 2 1/2 years ago.
“There must be a strong border between us and the enemy, and no walls between Ukrainians, because Ukraine is in each and every one of us,” Zelenskiy said in his message recorded symbolically in the northeastern border town of Sumy, close to where Ukrainian forces crossed into Russia on August 6.
“Those who sought to turn our lands into a buffer zone should now worry that their own country doesn’t become a buffer federation,” he said. “This is how independence responds.”
Zelenskiy also indirectly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that his war was doomed to fail, saying that “the sick grandfather from the Red Square…will not dictate his red lines to us.”
“How we live, what path we follow, and what choices we make — only Ukraine and Ukrainians will determine those for themselves. Because that’s how independence works,” he added.
As Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk continues, Russia is pressing an offensive in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk aimed at capturing the regional hub of Pokrovsk.
Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the east celebrated Independence Day with guns in their hands. Some of them shared their thoughts about the meaning of independence with RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.
Denys, an officer with the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, said his generation bears a responsibility to preserve Ukraine’s independence for their children’s future.
“The cowardice of parents leads to their children’s slavery. We are fighting so our children do not turn into slaves,” Denys said.
“Freedom is when you can breathe freely without a whip above you,” Vitaliy, a soldier with the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, told RFE/RL.
“Right now, independence means freedom from [Russians], ending this war, peaceful skies above us, and saving children from dying,” Vitaliy added.
“For me, independence is about saving our country and not letting the war pass on to our children,” said Roman, an officer from the 100th Mechanized Brigade.
General Oleksandr Syrskiy, who was promoted from colonel general to general on August 24, highlighted the sacrifices of Ukrainian soldiers in defending the country’s independence in a post on Telegram.
“We defended our independence from the first days of war — when we burned enemy columns, defended Kyiv, liberated Kharkiv region, and raised our flag over Kherson and Snake Island. The fight for our independence continues — in Pokrovsk, Toretsk, Kharkiv, and other directions where our soldiers stop and destroy the enemy’s overwhelming force,” said Syrskiy.
Russian shelling killed five people and wounded five others on August 24 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said.
“As a result of this enemy attack five residents — three men and two women — suffered fatal injuries,” the prosecutor said in a statement.
Ukraine, whose civilian and energy infrastructure has been battered by Russian drone strikes for years, has in turn been targeting in recent months oil and fuel facilities inside Russia that work for the military.
In the most recent strike, Ukrainian drones early on August 24 set an ammunition depot on fire in the Ostrogozhsk district of Russia’s Voronezh region.
Regional Governor Aleksandr Gusev said on Telegram that the fire was started by falling drone debris and caused ammunition to explode. He said there were no casualties.
Ostrogozhsk also houses a training center for armored vehicle operators.
The Belgorod region was also attacked by drones at night, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported, adding that two people were wounded.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said five drones were downed over Voronezh and one each over the Belgorod and Bryansk regions.