.Ukrainian Head of state Volodymyr Zelensky announced Friday that 49 Ukrainian POWs had been actually returned coming from Russia, along with AFP experiencing the team being actually greeted at the border along with Belarus.Zelensky carried out certainly not clear up whether it belonged to a swap along with Russia, as is normally the scenario, however AFP writers had previously viewed Russian hostages being actually packed onto a bus near the perimeter.It would certainly be the 2nd swap in between the warring nations since Kyiv's surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region.Zelensky mentioned private citizens were actually also amongst the returnees, featuring a "girl that was taken hostage when she related to deal with her ill dad.".He said the exchange additionally featured competitors coming from Mariupol's 2022 Azovstal battle, and also soldiers, border shields and also police officers.AFP spoke with 2 females in their 20s covered in Ukrainian flags and also receiving florals, that mentioned they were at the Azovstal plant that was up to Russia after a siege in 2022." I am actually lastly home, I can't believe it," mentioned 28-year-old Tamara Miroshnikova, commander of an equipped lorry of Ukraine's National Guard, mentioned.One more girl, 29-year-old Tetiana Bugay, said she was actually a medic at the Azov unit that defended Azovstal.Earlier, AFP observed the Ukrainian military driving Russian POWs in a bus, some were using hoods concealing their faces, which were actually removed as they were actually filled into a minivan.AFP talked to a few of them for a while, and all those who talked stated they were captured during Ukraine's surprise Kursk aggression final month.