During the prisoner exchange on October 2, civilian Sergey Akhmetov, who was abducted by Russian military personnel in the city of Bucha back in March 2022, returned home.

This was announced by the mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk, reports  Censor.NET .

As the Media Initiative for Human Rights  notes , Akhmetov lived in Bucha before the start of the full-scale war and was engaged in the manufacture of wooden toys. After the Russian invasion, his family evacuated, and he remained at home. On March 9, 2022, the occupiers broke into his apartment and kidnapped him. Since then, the man’s relatives have had almost no news about him. 

The man was initially held at the airport in Gostomel, where hostages were beaten and used as human shields. At the end of March, he and other Ukrainians were taken through Belarus to SIZO No. 2 in the Bryansk region of the Russian Federation, where they were held until at least May 2023.

Serhiy Akhmetov is currently in hospital recovering. According to Fedoruk, his return has become a symbol of hope for the community, as 33 civilians from the Buchan community still remain in captivity.

As a reminder, a combined prisoner exchange was held yesterday. 185 military personnel and 20 Ukrainian civilians were released from Russian captivity – some of them were exchanged in accordance with the agreements in Istanbul, some – within the framework of the next, 69th exchange.

Author:  Valeria Yegorova Джерело: https://censor.net/ua/p3577668

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