.Ukrainian Head of state Volodymyr Zelensky announced Friday that 49 Ukrainian POWs had been actually returned from Russia, with AFP seeing the group being actually welcomed at the border along with Belarus.Zelensky did not clear up whether it became part of a substitution with Russia, as is typically the instance, but AFP reporters had actually earlier found Russian prisoners of war being actually filled onto a bus near the borderline.It would certainly be the second substitution in between the challenging nations given that Kyiv's shock incursion into Russia's Kursk region.Zelensky stated private citizens were additionally one of the returnees, featuring a "woman that was actually hijacked when she related to deal with her unwell daddy.".He stated the swap additionally included boxers from Mariupol's 2022 Azovstal battle, and also soldiers, border protections as well as polices.AFP talked with 2 females in their 20s covered in Ukrainian flags as well as obtaining flowers, who mentioned they were at the Azovstal plant that was up to Russia after a siege in 2022." I'm eventually home, I can not think it," stated 28-year-old Tamara Miroshnikova, leader of an armed motor vehicle of Ukraine's National Guard, said.Another female, 29-year-old Tetiana Bugay, mentioned she was a paramedic at the Azov brigade that fought for Azovstal.Earlier, AFP saw the Ukrainian military steering Russian POWs in a bus, some were actually using bonnets hiding their faces, which were actually taken out as they were filled into a minivan.AFP spoke to several of them quickly, and all those that spoke claimed they were actually taken captive during the course of Ukraine's shock Kursk offensive last month.