.Ukrainian Head of state Volodymyr Zelensky declared Friday that 49 Ukrainian POWs had actually been actually returned coming from Russia, with AFP observing the team being actually welcomed at the border with Belarus.Zelensky did not clear up whether it was part of an exchange with Russia, as is often the instance, but AFP journalists had previously seen Russian prisoners of war being loaded onto a bus near the edge.It will be actually the second exchange in between the challenging countries given that Kyiv's unpleasant surprise incursion right into Russia's Kursk area.Zelensky said private citizens were also one of the returnees, consisting of a "woman who was actually hijacked when she came to care for her unwell daddy.".He said the exchange likewise consisted of boxers from Mariupol's 2022 Azovstal war, and also soldiers, boundary protectors and also law enforcement officers.AFP talked to pair of girls in their 20s wrapped in Ukrainian flags and also acquiring blooms, that said they went to the Azovstal plant that was up to Russia after a siege in 2022." I'm ultimately home, I can't think it," mentioned 28-year-old Tamara Miroshnikova, commander of an armed vehicle of Ukraine's National Protection, said.An additional girl, 29-year-old Tetiana Bugay, said she was a medic at the Azov unit that fought for Azovstal.Previously, AFP observed the Ukrainian military driving Russian POWs in a bus, some were wearing hoods hiding their faces, which were actually gotten rid of as they were actually packed right into a minivan.AFP talked to a number of them quickly, and all those who communicated stated they were actually taken captive during Ukraine's surprise Kursk aggression final month.