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As Ukraine marks 33 years of independence on August 24, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has introduced that 115 Ukrainian prisoners have been launched in a swap with Russia.

“Another 115 of our defenders have returned residence at this time. They are warriors from the National Guard, the Armed Forces, the Navy, and the State Border Guard Service,” Zelenskiy stated in a message on X.

“We bear in mind everybody. We are trying to find them and making each effort to convey all of them again,” he stated.

Some of the launched Ukrainian prisoners spoke to RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service from a location Ukrainian authorities requested not be disclosed.

Ihor, who supplied solely his first title, stated he was captured whereas serving as a conscript in National Guard Unit 3057, a part of the Ukrainian forces that defended the town of Mariupol and surrendered to Russia in May 2022.

According to a Ukrainian governmental physique that oversees the therapy of prisoners of conflict, 82 of the freed Ukrainian troopers had fought in Mariupol.

“They led us out of the jail cell at 5 a.m. There have been no phrases, no clarification. They took us to the workplace and gave us our uniforms to place them on. Then they took us someplace in automobiles,” Ihor stated. “No one advised us whether or not that was a easy switch to a different jail or a prisoner swap. We arrived at an air base and have been placed on a aircraft. The aircraft arrived at one other air base. More than 100 of us gathered there. Only then we understood that this was a prisoner swap.”

Andriy, one other freed soldier who gave solely his first title, stated he served in the identical National Guard unit.

“I saved dreaming about it on a regular basis in captivity — that I’ll be again on August 24,” stated Andriy, who struggled to reply in Ukrainian as a result of he had turn out to be accustomed to talking Russian whereas in captivity. “It’s a sense past description.”

Zelenskiy, referring to Russian troops who’ve been taken prisoner throughout Ukraine’s ongoing incursion into Russia’s Kursk area that began on August 6, stated in his publish on X that “I’m grateful to every unit that replenishes our alternate fund.”

Ukraine beforehand stated that Russian troopers taken prisoner in Kursk can be used as an “alternate fund” to launch Ukrainian troops from Russian captivity.

Separately, Russia’s Defense Ministry stated it obtained 115 of its personal troops, who had been captured within the Kursk area, in alternate for a similar variety of Ukrainian conflict prisoners.

It stated the prisoner alternate was mediated by the United Arab Emirates.

Zelenskiy additionally highlighted the heroic resistance of his individuals within the face of Russia’s unprovoked invasion in remarks devoted to Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24 — a day that additionally marked the somber milestone of 30 months of conflict.

“Independence is in each one in every of us. And united, we will win…. We withstood, restrained, and repulsed the enemy, and now we’re pushing it in its swamps. We know what independence is, how tough it’s to revive it, how tough it’s to guard. But we additionally know that every thing is determined by us,” he stated.

No festivities or parades are scheduled, with many Ukrainians preferring to mark 33 years of independence by honoring these killed within the conflict.

Ukraine says its incursion in Russia’s border area of Kursk — which took Moscow abruptly, shocked Russia’s ruling elites, and introduced greater than 1,260 sq. kilometers and 92 settlements below its management — is supposed to ascertain a buffer zone that may put an finish to Moscow’s incessant shelling of Ukrainian civilian areas and infrastructure from throughout the border.

Ukraine’s management has repeatedly clarified the transfer is just not geared toward gaining territory, not like Russia’s full-scale invasion that began on February 24, 2022, precisely 2 1/2 years in the past.

“There should be a powerful border between us and the enemy, and no partitions between Ukrainians, as a result of Ukraine is in each one in every of us,” Zelenskiy stated in his message recorded symbolically within the northeastern border city of Sumy, near the place Ukrainian forces crossed into Russia on August 6.

“Those who sought to show our lands right into a buffer zone ought to now fear that their very own nation does not turn out to be a buffer federation,” he stated. “This is how independence responds.”

Zelenskiy additionally not directly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that his conflict was doomed to fail, saying that “the sick grandfather from the Red Square…won’t dictate his pink traces to us.”

“How we reside, what path we observe, and what selections we make — solely Ukraine and Ukrainians will decide these for themselves. Because that is how independence works,” he added.

As Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk continues, Russia is urgent an offensive in Ukraine’s japanese area of Donetsk geared toward capturing the regional hub of Pokrovsk.

Ukrainian troopers preventing within the east celebrated Independence Day with weapons of their palms. Some of them shared their ideas in regards to the that means of independence with RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.

Denys, an officer with the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, stated his era bears a accountability to protect Ukraine’s independence for his or her youngsters’s future.

“The cowardice of oldsters results in their youngsters’s slavery. We are preventing so our youngsters don’t flip into slaves,” Denys stated.

“Freedom is when you’ll be able to breathe freely and not using a whip above you,” Vitaliy, a soldier with the 93rd Mechanized Brigade, advised RFE/RL.

“Right now, independence means freedom from [Russians], ending this conflict, peaceable skies above us, and saving youngsters from dying,” Vitaliy added.

“For me, independence is about saving our nation and never letting the conflict move on to our youngsters,” stated Roman, an officer from the one centesimal Mechanized Brigade.

General Oleksandr Syrskiy, who was promoted from colonel normal to normal on August 24, highlighted the sacrifices of Ukrainian troopers in defending the nation’s independence in a publish on Telegram.

“We defended our independence from the primary days of conflict — after we burned enemy columns, defended Kyiv, liberated Kharkiv area, and raised our flag over Kherson and Snake Island. The struggle for our independence continues — in Pokrovsk, Toretsk, Kharkiv, and different instructions the place our troopers cease and destroy the enemy’s overwhelming power,” stated Syrskiy.

Russian shelling killed 5 individuals and wounded 5 others on August 24 within the japanese Ukrainian metropolis of Kostyantynivka, Ukraine’s prosecutor normal stated.

“As a results of this enemy assault 5 residents — three males and two girls — suffered deadly accidents,” the prosecutor stated in an announcement.

Ukraine, whose civilian and power infrastructure has been battered by Russian drone strikes for years, has in flip been concentrating on in current months oil and gasoline services inside Russia that work for the navy.

In the newest strike, Ukrainian drones early on August 24 set an ammunition depot on hearth within the Ostrogozhsk district of Russia’s Voronezh area.

Regional Governor Aleksandr Gusev stated on Telegram that the fireplace was began by falling drone particles and induced ammunition to blow up. He stated there have been no casualties.

Ostrogozhsk additionally homes a coaching heart for armored car operators.

The Belgorod area was additionally attacked by drones at evening, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported, including that two individuals have been wounded.

Russia’s Defense Ministry stated 5 drones have been downed over Voronezh and one every over the Belgorod and Bryansk areas.

RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service correspondent Roman Pahulych contributed to this report.