Khilyuk\u2019s parents<\/a> in 2024, shortly after Moscow finally admitted that Dima \u2014 as his parents call him \u2014 was in Russian custody.\n <\/p>\n\n All his parents had from Dima directly was a short, handwritten note dated April 2022, in which he told them he was \u201calive and well\u201d and which the Khilyuks did not receive until August that year.\n <\/p>\n
\n According to Khilyuk\u2019s lawyer, he was never charged or convicted of any crime.\n <\/p>\n
\n Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Khilyuk was among eight civilians released on Sunday, sharing photos of the group on his official Telegram channel.\n <\/p>\n
\n Ukraine\u2019s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of POWs said the eight civilians were released alongside soldiers and other security force members. It said all of the released were are privates and sergeants and almost all spent more than three years in captivity.\n <\/p>\n
\n Ukraine did not say how many people were included in the exchange. The Russian Defence Ministry said earlier on Sunday that 146 Russian servicemen were returned from Ukraine in exchange for 146 Ukrainian prisoners of war, adding that eight Russian civilians from the Kursk region were also returned.\n <\/p>\n
\n Kyiv has not commented on the claim that Russian civilians were included in the exchange. Previously, when Russian civilians were released from Ukraine, Kyiv said they were Russian saboteurs and collaborators.\n <\/p>\n
\n Andriy Yermak, Zelensky\u2019s Chief of Staff, said that former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko was also released on Sunday. Yermak said Mykolayenko spent more than three years in Russian captivity, having refused to be exchanged in 2022, insisting that a critically ill fellow prisoner be released first.\n <\/p>\n
\n Speaking on Sunday, Mykolayenko said that he has \u201cseen nothing but bars and concrete in recent years.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n He described Sunday as his \u201csecond birthday\u201d and said: \u201cIt is a wonderful coincidence that my mother\u2019s birthday is tomorrow. Mum, I love you very much. She is 91 years old \u2026 I did not know if I would find her alive and well.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The Ukrainian government said another journalist, Mark Kaliush, was also freed on Sunday, as was Serhiy Kovalyov, a medic who treated injured soldiers and civilians during the siege of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.\n <\/p>\n
\n Their release marks a rare moment of hope for the families of Ukrainians detained in Russia.\n <\/p>\n
\n According to Kyiv, at least 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are known to be detained in Russia, although the real number is likely to be much higher.\n <\/p>\n
\n Some 37,000 Ukrainians, including civilians, children and members of the military, are officially recognized as missing.\n <\/p>\n
\n Many have been detained in occupied territories, detained for months or even years without any charges or trial, and deported to Russia. They include activists, priests, politicians and community leaders as well as people who appear to have been snatched by Russian troops at random at checkpoints and other places in occupied Ukraine.\n <\/p>\n
\n Some 30 Ukrainian journalists are currently detained in Russia, most without ever being charged or convicted of anything, according to Ukraine\u2019s Institute of Mass Information.\n <\/p>\n
\n The detention of civilians by an occupying power is illegal under international laws of conflict, except in a few narrowly-defined situations and with strict time limits.\n <\/p>\n
\n There is no established legal framework for the treatment and exchange of civilian detainees in the same way there is for prisoners of war.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link A Ukrainian journalist who was held incommunicado by Russia for more than three years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332],"class_list":{"0":"post-370303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115085028277070981","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Halyna](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/mg-5775.JPG\")
<\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/mg-5769.JPG\")
<\/p>\n