Moscow and Kyiv exchanged 90 POWs and a few civilians every earlier this week.
Kyiv, Ukraine:
Ukraine and Russia mentioned Saturday that monks have been among the many dozens of captured troopers and civilians they’d exchanged earlier this week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned two Ukrainian Greek Catholic monks taken captive in Moscow-occupied Berdiansk have been handed again to Ukraine due to the mediation of the Vatican.
In the meantime, Russia mentioned a high-ranking Ukrainian Orthodox cleric was handed over to Moscow together with two different monks.
Church buildings have been closely affected by the warfare, with Kyiv’s Orthodox church breaking ties with Moscow and Ukraine repeatedly accusing clerics of treason.
Moscow and Kyiv exchanged 90 POWs and a few civilians every earlier this week.
Talking at an occasion in Kyiv, Zelensky named the 2 launched Ukrainian Greek Catholic monks as Bogdan Geleta and Ivan Levytskyi, and mentioned they’d been preaching in Berdiansk.
Bediansk, on the Azov Sea, fell to Russian forces within the first days of their February 2022 invasion. The monks had been held by the Russians since 16 November 2022, Zelensky added.
He mentioned they have been freed “due to the efforts of our staff and the mediation of the Vatican, for which I’m particularly grateful.”
Pope Francis earlier this yr expressed hopes for a “common” prisoner change between the 2 international locations.
Metropolitan Ionafan, the Ukrainian Orthodox cleric handed over to Moscow, had been convicted in August 2023 of justifying the Russian invasion and was dealing with 5 years in jail.
Moscow’s ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova mentioned Ionafan was acquired by the pinnacle of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill in Moscow.
She mentioned two different Orthodox monks who had remained with Moscow’s patriarchy when the church cut up have been additionally handed over to Russia in the middle of the change.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
