This was reported by Volodymyr Zelensky.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that as a result of the exchange, 5 civilians, who were arrested in Belarus and imprisoned, returned to Ukraine: Mykola Shvets, Natalia Zakharenko, Pavlo Kuprienko, Lyudmyla Honcharenko and Ekaterina Bryukhanova. Volodymyr Zelensky also noted that the Vatican took part in the exchange.
Mykola Shvets is a Ukrainian who was arrested after the attack on the Russian A-50 AEW&C aircraft in Machulishchy. In October 2023, propagandists published a “repentant” interview with him, where he “confessed” his participation in the operation and described how he was allegedly deceived and abandoned by the Ukrainian security services.
Political prisoner Natalia Zakharenko traveled from Chernihiv to Mazyr in June 2023, where she was arrested by law enforcers. Later she was convicted by Homiel Regional Court for “espionage”. She was sentenced to 9 years in prison. Natalia was a volunteer, after the beginning of the war she transported Ukrainian refugees to the EU and Belarus, sent documents and medicines.
On March 9,2023, Pavlo Kuprienko was sentenced to 7 years in a penal colony “for agent activity in favor of Ukraine.” On June 30, 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs added the political prisoner to the “list of extremists”.
Ekaterina Bryukhanova, who was born in Kherson, had been living in Belarus since 2016. She was detained while passing the Belarusian border. In her phone, which she was demanded to check, the law enforcers found two videos sent on March 30, 2022 to the chatbot of the Zerkalo media. These videos depicted the movement of equipment of the Russian Armed Forces near Minsk.
The trial of Lyudmila Honcharenko was closed. She was tried for “agent activity”, the verdict is unknown.
