Video: A soldier from the Ternopil region has returned home after four years in captivity

After four years in captivity, Andriy Chverenchuk from the village of Skomorokhy in the Ternopil region returned home. The Ukrainian soldier was taken prisoner while severely wounded.

“My son took part in heavy fighting in the Lyman sector. That’s where he was captured in September 2022. Andriy had a serious injury. He spent half a year in the hospital,” she says.

According to Olga Dmytrivna, the documentary film “6th Company” details how her son was taken prisoner. In it, his comrades recount that on September 25, two groups of 10 men each set out to storm Lyman and were ambushed. The occupiers attacked the Ukrainian soldiers. Andriy was wounded and remained in the M113 along with a fellow soldier. The men engaged the enemy. Later, they received an order to retreat into the forest so that the artillery could fire. Andriy and his comrade, whose call sign was “Znakhar,” both of whom were wounded, were taken prisoner.

Andriy Chverenchuk is a chemist by training and holds a Ph.D. in Technical Sciences. When the full-scale invasion began, he was living and working in Kyiv. He joined the defense of Ukraine in the spring of 2022. He served in the 66th Mechanized Brigade named after Prince Mstislav the Brave.

“During the four years that Andriy was held captive, we wrote him many letters. We hoped they would be a source of support for our son. Fortunately, he did receive one letter. Later, through fellow soldiers who had been released from captivity, he conveyed his gratitude to us for writing to him. We also know that Andriy was first held in the Sverdlovsk penal colony, then in Novosibirsk, and later transferred to Kamyshin, where conditions were the harshest,” says the soldier’s mother.

She admitted that it’s hard for her to describe the emotions she felt when she heard her son’s voice on the phone: “I’m still in a state of euphoria; I still can’t fully comprehend how happy I am.”

According to her, prayer and faith in God helped her endure the separation from her son and the uncertainty over the past four years.

Olga Chverenchuk, the soldier’s mother, shared this with a Ukrinform correspondent.

Yevhen Uimanov, a marine from the Mykolaiv region, has returned from Russian captivity.

The long-awaited exchange: Ukraine has brought home 270 Ukrainians from Russian captivity.

As a reminder, Ukraine and Russia carried out a prisoner exchange on a 270-for-270 basis.

On October 23, Ukraine repatriated seven more civilians from the occupied territories to government-controlled areas. Among them were a 90-year-old woman with limited mobility, a 50-year-old Ukrainian woman with serious health conditions, as well as a young woman and her child.

Prior to this, as a result of repatriation efforts, the bodies of 252 deceased individuals—who, according to the Russian side, were Ukrainian servicemen—were returned to Ukraine. This was reported by representatives of the relevant Ukrainian agencies.