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 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
A case involving a Mississippi street preacher–arrested for sharing the Gospel outside a concert venue–has now reached the U.S. Supreme Court, setting the stage for a ruling that could reshape how Americans defend their constitutional rights against local restrictions.
President Donald Trump announced last Friday that he is revoking all executive orders and related documents signed using an autopen during the Biden administration, alleging that the signatures were made without the former president’s authorization and are therefore unlawful.
President Donald Trump said on Dec. 2 that the United States will begin conducting military strikes inside Venezuela “very soon,” marking a significant escalation in Washington’s months-long campaign to dismantle narcotics networks that U.S. officials say are operating with the protection of the Maduro regime.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued one of his starkest threats yet toward Europe on Tuesday, declaring that Moscow is “ready right now” for a war with the continent if attacked–an escalation made just hours before meeting White House special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the Kremlin.
Shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire just blocks from the White House, an Afghan national evacuated to the United States in 2021 is accused of killing one West Virginia National Guard soldier and critically injuring another in a broad-daylight attack that federal authorities say was entirely unprovoked.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel is prepared to reach a diplomatic arrangement with Syria’s new regime, but only under conditions that firmly protect Israel’s security and prevent the rise of new threats along its northern border.
The Trump administration’s push to broker an end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine entered a volatile new phase Tuesday, as White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.