.Ukrainian Head of state Volodymyr Zelensky declared Friday that 49 Ukrainian POWs had been returned coming from Russia, along with AFP seeing the team being actually welcomed at the border along with Belarus.Zelensky did certainly not clarify whether it belonged to a substitution with Russia, as is actually often the scenario, but AFP journalists had actually previously seen Russian hostages being loaded onto a bus near the perimeter.It would certainly be actually the second exchange in between the warring nations since Kyiv's shock attack right into Russia's Kursk region.Zelensky claimed civilians were actually additionally amongst the returnees, featuring a "lady that was actually taken hostage when she concerned deal with her unwell daddy.".He said the substitution also included boxers coming from Mariupol's 2022 Azovstal battle, and also soldiers, perimeter guards and law enforcement agents.AFP talked with pair of females in their 20s wrapped in Ukrainian flags as well as receiving blossoms, who claimed they went to the Azovstal vegetation that fell to Russia after a siege in 2022." I am actually lastly home, I can't feel it," stated 28-year-old Tamara Miroshnikova, commander of an equipped vehicle of Ukraine's National Shield, mentioned.One more female, 29-year-old Tetiana Bugay, said she was actually a medic at the Azov unit that fought for Azovstal.Previously, AFP viewed the Ukrainian armed forces steering Russian POWs in a bus, some were actually wearing bonnets concealing their faces, which were removed as they were loaded into a minivan.AFP talked with a few of all of them for a while, and all those that communicated stated they were actually taken captive throughout Ukraine's unpleasant surprise Kursk onslaught final month.