Civilian Bohdan Kovalchuk has been brought back to Ukraine as a result of another prisoner exchange with Russia. He had been held in captivity since 2016, when Russian forces detained him at the age of 17.

Source:Hromadske, a Ukrainian public broadcaster

Details: Bohdan's grandmother, Tetiana Hots, said she had already spoken to him on the phone and was now travelling to see him for the first time since his imprisonment. "Grandma, I’m coming home," Bohdan told her.

Bohdan was among several teenagers detained in August 2016 in the territory of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), according to the Media Initiative for Human Rights. At the time, he lived in the city of Yasynuvata with his mother, grandmother and great-grandfather and was planning to move to Toretsk to study as an auto mechanic.

His grandmother said Bohdan was in Yasynuvata to collect documents for enrolment in a college when he and other youths were detained while leaving the occupied town. They were accused of being recruited by Ukraine’s Security Service (SSU) to blow up a railway junction in Yasynuvata. He was labelled the "leader of a gang" and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Some of the teenagers were later pardoned, reportedly on the condition that they refuse prisoner exchange and remain in the DPR. Bohdan declined the pardon and served his sentence in Toretsk Penal Colony No. 28.

Tetiana Hots said her grandson never complained, telling her: "I can endure everything; don’t worry".

In January 2022, the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner reported that Bohdan had serious lung problems and needed regular medical supervision, which was unavailable in the colony.

Background:On 14 August, Ukraine secured the release of 84 civilians and soldiers from Russian captivity, including people held since 2014 and defenders of Mariupol.

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