President greets first Ukrainians freed from captivity

15:11, 27.12.2017 1 min read

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has congratulated the first Ukrainian citizens released from captivity of militants, the press secretary of the head of state, Svyatoslav Tsegolko, has said.

"The president has just congratulated by phone the first of our guys released from enemy captivity. Each step of today's swap is overseen by the president," Tsegolko wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

Later he clarified that Poroshenko had talked to Vladyslav Ovcharenko, one of the first 16 Ukrainian hostages released, who had been previously held in certain areas of Luhansk region.

"Vladyslav Ovcharenko spoke with him. He, together with the other 15 civilians and military, returned from Russian-occupied Luhansk," Tsegolko wrote.

According to Russian media, the so-called "LPR" stated that Luhansk had transferred to Kyiv 16 persons in exchange for 74 hostages (it was originally planned to transfer 99 people to "LPR").