.Ukrainian Head of state Volodymyr Zelensky announced Friday that 49 Ukrainian POWs had been come back coming from Russia, with AFP observing the group being greeted at the boundary with Belarus.Zelensky did certainly not make clear whether it was part of a substitution with Russia, as is actually generally the scenario, but AFP journalists had actually previously viewed Russian prisoners of war being loaded onto a bus near the border.It would be the 2nd exchange between the challenging countries since Kyiv's shock attack right into Russia's Kursk region.Zelensky stated civilians were likewise amongst the returnees, consisting of a "gal who was actually taken hostage when she pertained to deal with her ill papa.".He mentioned the exchange likewise featured boxers from Mariupol's 2022 Azovstal battle, and also soldiers, border guards and law enforcement officers.AFP spoke with pair of girls in their 20s covered in Ukrainian banners and also obtaining florals, that claimed they went to the Azovstal vegetation that was up to Russia after a siege in 2022." I'm eventually home, I can not feel it," claimed 28-year-old Tamara Miroshnikova, commander of an armed lorry of Ukraine's National Guard, mentioned.An additional woman, 29-year-old Tetiana Bugay, said she was actually a paramedic at the Azov unit that fought for Azovstal.Previously, AFP saw the Ukrainian military steering Russian POWs in a bus, some were actually putting on hoods concealing their faces, which were taken out as they were actually filled in to a minivan.AFP contacted a few of them quickly, and all those who talked stated they were captured in the course of Ukraine's surprise Kursk onslaught final month.