A few hours ago, buses carrying more than 300 Ukrainian soldiers are expected to withdraw just released from the Russian prison, dozens of women hold pictures and carry posters in a desperate attempt to get information.
Irina Melto, 28, had three pictures of her father, Sirhi Horm, 50, who was captured and imprisoned in Russia for about a year and a half.
It was not listed in the list of prisoners who will be exchanged on Saturday, but like others who crowded in the meadows and sidewalks, she hoped that some of the newly released soldiers would know her father.
Maybe they fought next to him, or they may get to know him from a prison in prison.
“I just hope a person says he is fine, and that he is alive and healthy,” MELEO told CBC news crew in the Cherhniev area in northern Ukrain.
“I am always afraid to get bad news.”
Her father, who was previously working as a security guard before being recruited in the army, was lost while fighting near Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv area, in November 2023.
A month later, the family discovered that he had been captured, after someone sent them a video clip from the Russian social media channel that showed Horm in reservation and complained that he was facing a problem in seeing him.
This was the only thing her family knew about her father, until her phone sang suddenly while waiting for the buses on Saturday.
On the other line, the Ukrainian official said that they had just learned that Horm was released in the last group and was on a bus on the way to the hospital.
Melto and her young sister, Olina Kashava, 24, started crying tears of joy and then called their mother Tatiana Horm.
She did not come with them that morning to try the fabric to get information, but it raced towards the meeting point when it was told about sudden sudden reunification.
“It is difficult to believe,” said Melto. “We were standing here a minute ago in the hope of getting some information, and now we will receive this message!”
Hundreds of prisoners exchange
Her father was among the 307 Ukrainian soldiers who were released on Saturday for the same number of Russian soldiers. Both countries agreed to liberate 1,000 prisoners of war as part of direct talks in Türkiye last week.
Saturday exchange The issuance of approximately 800 prisoners of war follows on Friday.
While Russia and Ukraine have agreed to many of the prisoners’ bodies since Russia launched a large -scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, this exchange was the largest so far.
It is believed that each side has thousands of prisoners of war, but none of the countries reveal the fine numbers.
Media organizations that reports in Ukraine are granted the possibility of covering the return of soldiers, but they must agree to the circumstances set by the Ukrainian army. It includes not specifying microcity and avoiding any questions related to conditions and treatment, on fears that may be painful.
There were many reports on torture in Russian prisons, and in 2024, a United Nations Investigation Committee Evidence was found that torture was common against Ukrainian civilians and soldiers.
“Praise be to God.”
When mylto waited for the arrival of the soldiers, he was reflected in how to put her father’s absence in a hole in their narrow family. After he was recruited and sent to the foreground, they were unable to stay in contact with him.
After being captured, her older daughter told that the grandfather was on the way to work and would not be able to send a message to them.
Melto said she is struggling to think about what he went through, and instead he wants to focus on how to support her in his recovery.
When the buses withdrew, a group of soldiers came out with Ukrainian flags to a crowd of chants.
Melto did not see her father, so she, her sister and her mother rushed to the hospital’s entrance, where he was supposed to be transferred and waited outside the news.
The doctor told them to go around the corner.
Her father was in a window, smiling and waving from the hospital room. He was very pale and gentle, but he gave his daughters and his wife a thumb.
“Praise be to God,” said Mileto wiping tears. “We do not know what happened to him there, but we will be it.”
“My daughter does not know her father.”
When her family waited to allow hospitalization for the right reunion, the soldiers were drove in one by a group of people, most of whom were women. They pushed the pictures forward and shouted names in the hope that someone would get to know something.
In the crowd, Veronica Kolakova, 21, was his partner, Evan Kokovitsky, did not meet their five -month -old daughter.
It was captured seven months ago. In the release of a former prisoner, she spoke to two soldiers who believed that they had seen him in a Russian hospital.
Kolakova said she does not have other information and is strongly waiting for a call to hear that, too, he will be released one day.
“I am very sorry because my daughter does not know her father. I often see her image even when he returns, she understands that he is.”
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