By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says ten Ukrainian civilians held prisoner for years by Russia arrived in Kyiv on Saturday after the mediation of the Vatican, including even priests and a representative of the Crimean Tatars.
They had been waiting for this moment for years, hoping and perhaps praying that the world had not forgotten them. Ten visibly tired, exhausted former prisoners arrived in Kyiv after the Vatican mediated their case.
Some had been captured years before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Among those freed was Nariman Dzhelyal, deputy head of the Mejlis, a representative body of Crimean Tatars that was relocated to Kyiv after Russia seized the peninsula in 2014.
He was taken from Crimea, where he lived despite the annexation, one year before the war.
The former prisoners, wrapped in blue and yellow flags, reunited with families in Kyiv and called those who couldn’t be there. For some, the separation had lasted many years.
Two Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests were also among those freed.
OCCUPIED CITY
Officials said that Russia released Ivan Levytskyi and Bohdan Heleta, both members of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, along with the eight others.
Priest Heleta was detained in 2022 in his church in the occupied city of Berdiansk in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia.
He urged the world not to forget those who stayed behind. “There are a lot of our men,” he said. “And girls and women are there. They need help concrete help. They are waiting for this help. I also ask the world to react even more.”
Pope Francis, in an address on Saturday, called for the release of all prisoners in the war and thanked God for the liberation of the two priests.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement that he was grateful to everyone who helped and especially acknowledged what he called “the efforts of the Holy See in bringing these people home.”
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War says 3,310 Ukrainians have already been released from Russian captivity since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
They also include 90 war prisoners released by each site earlier this week. The United Arab Emirates mediated the exchange of the 180 prisoners of war.
Yet, with many still behind bars, Zelenskyy has said he still hopes all prisoners can be exchanged as Europe’s bloodiest war since World War Two is now raging in its third year.
On Saturday, Pope Francis invited all present to pray that all prisoners return home. At the same time, he reflected “with pain” on the “brothers and sisters suffering because of war.”
“Let us think of all the people wounded or threatened by the fighting”, said Francis asking that God may “free them and sustain them in the struggle for peace”.
He has made clear that he is prepared to help mediate a lasting peace deal between Russia and Ukraine and earlier went out of his way to visit the Russian embassy in Rome to urge an end to the bloodshed.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Pakistan has deployed about 8,000 troops, a squadron of fighter jets, drones, and an air defense system to Saudi Arabia under a confidential mutual defense pact, according to an exclusive Reuters report.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he has called off a planned U.S. military strike against Iran that had been scheduled for Tuesday, citing urgent requests from Gulf leaders and what he described as “serious negotiations” aimed at reaching a deal with Tehran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israeli forces now control roughly 60% of the Gaza Strip, marking a significant expansion of Israel’s security hold inside the enclave months after the U.S.-brokered ceasefire took effect.
Israeli forces struck more than 30 Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites across Southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday morning, as the Iranian-backed group continued attacks on Israeli troops and border communities.
The United States has completed a secret nuclear security mission to remove roughly 30 pounds of highly enriched uranium from Venezuela, transferring the material from the country’s shuttered RV-1 research reactor to a secure U.S. facility in South Carolina.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with President Donald Trump on Sunday evening as Israel and the United States weighed the possibility of renewed military action against Iran, following stalled nuclear negotiations and a drone strike near a nuclear power station in the United Arab Emirates.
Evangelist Franklin Graham said Sunday that “God did a miracle” in Belarus after he held what organizers described as the largest evangelical Christian gathering in the country’s modern history and met authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.