.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Friday that 49 Ukrainian POWs had actually been actually come back from Russia, along with AFP witnessing the team being greeted at the perimeter with Belarus.Zelensky performed certainly not clarify whether it was part of a swap with Russia, as is usually the case, yet AFP journalists had actually earlier seen Russian hostages being loaded onto a bus near the borderline.It would be actually the second substitution in between the challenging countries considering that Kyiv's unpleasant surprise incursion right into Russia's Kursk area.Zelensky pointed out private citizens were actually additionally one of the returnees, consisting of a "female that was taken hostage when she pertained to take care of her sick father.".He stated the substitution also featured competitors coming from Mariupol's 2022 Azovstal fight, in addition to soldiers, boundary guards and also law enforcement officers.AFP spoke to two girls in their 20s covered in Ukrainian flags as well as getting blossoms, that said they went to the Azovstal plant that was up to Russia after a siege in 2022." I'm finally home, I can't feel it," mentioned 28-year-old Tamara Miroshnikova, leader of an equipped automobile of Ukraine's National Guard, stated.Another woman, 29-year-old Tetiana Bugay, mentioned she was actually a paramedic at the Azov unit that fought for Azovstal.Earlier, AFP observed the Ukrainian armed forces driving Russian POWs in a bus, some were using bonnets hiding their skins, which were actually gotten rid of as they were actually loaded in to a minivan.AFP contacted several of them temporarily, and all those that talked claimed they were actually captured during the course of Ukraine's shock Kursk aggression final month.