.Ukrainian Head of state Volodymyr Zelensky declared Friday that 49 Ukrainian POWs had been actually returned coming from Russia, along with AFP seeing the team being welcomed at the border along with Belarus.Zelensky performed certainly not clarify whether it became part of a substitution with Russia, as is typically the case, but AFP reporters had actually previously observed Russian hostages being actually loaded onto a bus near the perimeter.It will be actually the 2nd substitution in between the challenging countries given that Kyiv's surprise attack right into Russia's Kursk region.Zelensky mentioned civilians were actually additionally among the returnees, including a "gal who was actually hijacked when she pertained to care for her sick daddy.".He claimed the substitution also featured boxers from Mariupol's 2022 Azovstal war, in addition to soldiers, boundary protectors and also policemans.AFP contacted two females in their 20s covered in Ukrainian banners as well as getting blooms, who claimed they went to the Azovstal vegetation that fell to Russia after a siege in 2022." I'm ultimately home, I can not think it," pointed out 28-year-old Tamara Miroshnikova, leader of an equipped automobile of Ukraine's National Protection, mentioned.Another lady, 29-year-old Tetiana Bugay, said she was actually a medic at the Azov brigade that fought for Azovstal.Previously, AFP viewed the Ukrainian military steering Russian POWs in a bus, some were wearing hoods concealing their skins, which were actually removed as they were loaded right into a minivan.AFP contacted some of all of them briefly, and all those that talked stated they were captured in the course of Ukraine's shock Kursk offensive last month.