.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Friday that 49 Ukrainian POWs had been actually returned from Russia, along with AFP watching the team being greeted at the border with Belarus.Zelensky did not clear up whether it was part of an exchange with Russia, as is often the case, but AFP writers had previously seen Russian hostages being packed onto a bus near the borderline.It would certainly be actually the 2nd substitution in between the challenging nations due to the fact that Kyiv's surprise incursion in to Russia's Kursk region.Zelensky pointed out civilians were additionally one of the returnees, consisting of a "woman who was actually taken hostage when she came to take care of her sick papa.".He said the exchange additionally featured fighters from Mariupol's 2022 Azovstal battle, in addition to soldiers, border protections and police officers.AFP contacted two women in their 20s covered in Ukrainian banners and also acquiring florals, who claimed they were at the Azovstal vegetation that fell to Russia after a siege in 2022." I am actually eventually home, I can not believe it," said 28-year-old Tamara Miroshnikova, commander of an armed automobile of Ukraine's National Protection, mentioned.One more girl, 29-year-old Tetiana Bugay, mentioned she was actually a medic at the Azov brigade that fought for Azovstal.Previously, AFP saw the Ukrainian armed forces driving Russian POWs in a bus, some were putting on hoods concealing their faces, which were removed as they were packed into a minivan.AFP spoke with several of all of them briefly, and all those who communicated mentioned they were taken captive throughout Ukraine's unpleasant surprise Kursk aggression last month.