Alina Volovyk, speaking to CNN via WhatsApp, described receiving a phone call from a man she did not initially recognize as her husband, Artem Volovyk, a Ukrainian marine who fought at the Azovstal steel plant earlier this year, before all of Mariupol was taken. by Russian forces. “At first, I didn’t understand what was happening and where he was,” recalls Alina Volovyk. “But he said: ‘Darling, I’m already in Ukraine! An exchange took place.” “I just started screaming, my hands were shaking,” she said. “Now I’m the happiest woman in the world.” Russia on Wednesday released 215 people from its custody, including some foreign nationals who had fought for Ukraine. In return, Ukraine released 55 people, including Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and oligarch whose daughter is Vladimir Putin’s godfather. Among the 215 people freed by Russia were “188 heroes of Azovstal and Mariupol,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said overnight. The release of the Azovstal and Mariupol fighters is a major coup for Ukrainian morale, given the huge role the defense of Mariupol played in the Ukrainian psyche early in the war. This is the largest single movement of fighters from Mariupol. In a prisoner exchange in June, Russia released 144 soldiers, including 95 who had defended the Azovstal factory. Ruslana Volynska, whose husband Serhii “Volyna” Volynskyi, was acting commander of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, told CNN via text message that she learned of the exchange online. “Later Serhii called and I heard him. It was boundless joy, shock, happiness! All the emotions were mixed! I cried with happiness and couldn’t believe this day had come,” she said. An adviser to the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andryushenko, who was forced to flee his city as Russia advanced, told Telegram that Mariupol “rejoices at the return of its Heroes to Ukrainian soil. Even in possession!”. “I still can’t believe it,” Alina Volovyk told CNN. “It seems to me that this is a dream and I will wake up soon. I couldn’t sleep until 5 in the morning because I was overwhelmed with emotions.” “Just two hours ago, when I was doing some shopping, I realized my husband was at home and I started crying. The only thing I want now is to hug him as soon as possible,” she added.
