Four Ukrainian soldiers have been rescued from a hospital deep inside Russian territory after remaining hidden for three years, the commander of the Ukrainian navy said.
The troops were wounded in battle in 2022 and remained in hospital in Russian-occupied Ukraine, where “sympathetic doctors” helped to shield them from Russian secret services, commander Oleksii Neizhpapa said on Facebook.
A marine, three national guards and a medical worker who had helped to hide the soldiers have all been evacuated.
“Our guys survived where it seemed there was no chance,” said Mr Neizhpapa, in a post announcing the rescue and giving details of how it was carried out.
Evacuation measures began after a marine, recently freed in a Moscow-Kyiv prisoner swap, said his twin brother had been severely wounded during fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2022.
“Upon receiving this information, I made the decision to begin special evacuation measures,” Mr Neizhpapa said.
“Later it turned out that, along with their twin brother, three other soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine, who had been forced to stay there for more than three years, were in the hospital.”
For safety reasons, he did not disclose the location of the hospital or the identity of the soldiers.
The operation was divided into several stages and was carried out by the navy’s Angels special forces unit, which Mr Neizhpapa says has rescued 88 people from Russian territory since its creation.
“This story is about faith,” he added. “Our boys survived where there seemed to be no chance. It’s about the power of the Angels, who were able to get fighters even from the heart of enemy territory. And proved once again that we never leave our own.”
An emotional video shows the moment a soldier waits for his rescued brother, whom he says he hasn’t seen for four years.
“I miss him so much. I’m going to meet him now. It’s not easy to get through something like this,” he said in the video.
“Currently our warriors are safe and finally with their relatives,” Mr Neizhpapa said, adding that the unit has “already saved 88 people and proved once again that nothing is impossible for Ukrainian soldiers”.
Since 2022, Kyiv has secured the release of more than 6,400 Ukrainians from Russian captivity, president Volodymyr Zelensky said in July. A total of 5,857 of these troops were freed during a series of prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, many of which came after delegations from Moscow and Kyiv resumed face-to-face talks in May this year.
