Ten Ukrainian POWs return home after being held for years by Russia
Kyiv International Airport, which had been closed since the war began, was specially opened up to welcome the ten, some of whom flew in by helicopter whilst others arrived by bus. Some of those released had been captured before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. It is rare for individuals detained after 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea, to be released but the Vatican is known to have been involved in securing their freedom. Two of the freed, Ivan Levytskyi and Bohdan Geleta, were monks. Levytskyi had been detained in 2022 inside his church in the occupied city of Berdiansk in the ...