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
Israel said Tuesday it has begun enforcing new registration regulations for international nongovernmental organizations, moving to bar 37 groups from operating in Gaza and the West Bank after they failed to comply with requirements introduced earlier this year.
Federal authorities are launching what the Department of Homeland Security described as a “massive operation” in Minnesota aimed at identifying, arresting, and removing criminals accused of defrauding American taxpayers.
Israel and the United States have agreed to give Hamas a two-month window to disarm, according to a report by Israel Hayom, following an overnight meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Department of Justice will continue investigating what she described as widespread “government weaponization” by officials who served under the Obama and Biden administrations, even after courts dismissed charges against several high-profile figures.
Saudi Arabia carried out airstrikes on the southern Yemeni port city of Mukalla on Dec. 30, saying the operation targeted weapons and military vehicles allegedly shipped from the United Arab Emirates to support separatist forces. Riyadh warned that its national security was a “red line” and demanded Emirati forces leave Yemen within 24 hours.
New details are emerging surrounding the U.S. strike on a suspected drug loading site in Venezuela, with multiple reports claiming a CIA drone carried it out.
A 14-year-old Christian girl is recovering after being abducted and raped in Pakistan’s Punjab province, according to family members and police.