Ukraine said Thursday that two military pilots captured by Moscow’s forces last month and held in Russia have been released, without giving details of their return.
“Two Ukrainian pilots who were held captive by Russian occupiers were released,” Ukraine’s defense ministry said in a statement on social media.
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It identified the men as Ivan Pepelyashko and Oleksiy Chyzh and said they had been captured in early March in a village in Ukraine’s northern Chernigiv region.
The statement said the pilots were held in several locations before being brought to the Kursk region of southern Russia, where they were held with eight other Ukrainian military personnel.
The status of the other eight captives was not immediately clear.
The statement cited Chyzh as saying they were subjected to hostile interrogations and denied medical treatment while in captivity.
“We were forced to record propaganda videos. If we refused, they threatened to stop bandaging our comrades’ wounds,” the statement quoted him as saying.
The defense ministry statement said the men met with minister Kirill Budanov on their return to Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine have conducted several prisoner swaps since Moscow’s forces began their invasion of their pro-democratic neighbor in late February.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week offered to swap pro-Kremlin tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, who was arrested by Kyiv after escaping house arrest, for Ukrainians captured by Russia.
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