Nine years in Russian captivity: Ukrainian returns home after being captured by Russia at 17
Photo: prisoner exchange on August 14 (Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War)
During the prisoner exchange with Russia on August 14, Bohdan Kovalchuk returned home. He was captured by the Russian occupying forces at the age of 17 and had been held in captivity for over nine years, Hromadske reports.
The boy’s return home was confirmed to the news agency by his grandmother. According to her, they have already spoken by phone, and she will soon travel to Kyiv to meet her grandson after his release from captivity.
Russian occupying forces captured Kovalchuk in 2016. At that time, Bohdan was 17 years old and lived in temporarily occupied Yasynuvata. He was trying to travel to Toretsk (then still called Dzerzhynsk) to finish his studies and obtain a Ukrainian diploma. However, he was seized at a checkpoint by pro-Russian militants.
Kovalchuk was accused of allegedly working for the Security Service of Ukraine, including involvement in blowing up vehicles and a building of the occupation "police" established by pro-Russian militants from the so-called DNR (Donetsk People's Republic) organization.
In 2018, the so-called "court" found him guilty, ordered him to serve 10 years in prison, and sent him to a colony in temporarily occupied Torez. Ukraine succeeded in securing Kovalchuk’s release as a civilian hostage of the Russian regime. On August 14, he was exchanged along with more than 80 other Ukrainian citizens.
Photo: Bohdan Kovalchuk shortly before his capture (Hromadske)
On August 14, former commander of the legendary minesweeper Henichesk, Senior Lieutenant Oleksandr Boichuk, was also released from Russian captivity. The ship was destroyed by the Russian forces, and Boichuk himself was captured in 2022.
Prisoner exchange on August 14
On August 14, Ukraine and Russia carried out another prisoner exchange. Eighty-four Ukrainians returned home, including both military personnel and civilians. A notable aspect of this exchange is that more than 50 civilians were brought home, many of whom had been held in Russian torture facilities since 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Interestingly, according to media reports, during the war, Ukraine and Russia have exchanged more than 10,000 service members through a secret channel. The regularity of these exchanges makes this channel a unique phenomenon of modern warfare.
