MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that he was coming back to Ukraine together with five commanders of the Azov nationalist battalion (banned and designated as a terrorist organization in Russia), who had been in Turkey.

The video posted on Zelensky’s Telegram channel shows how the president and Andrey Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, are greeting the Ukrainian servicemen at the airport and boarding the plane together.

"We are coming back home from Turkey," the Ukrainian president wrote.

On September 22, 2022, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that more than 200 people had been transported to his country after a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine. Denis Pushilin, the then head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said earlier that, as part of the exchange, Kiev had released 55 servicemen of the allied forces, including four DPR privates and one corporal from the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR). In addition, Kiev released Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. A total of 215 people, including members of Ukrainian nationalist battalions, were returned to Ukraine.