Ukraine on Saturday hailed the return of 45 Azov battalion fighters captured during the battle for Mariupol after a prisoner swap with Russia, which said that three of its pilots had been released by Kyiv. Neither side gave a full account of the apparent swap.

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The freed Ukrainian prisoners included 42 men and three women from the Azov battalion, said Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office.

Azov battalion fighters, who did much of the fighting in the failed defense of the port city of Mariupol, have been lionized as heroes by many Ukrainians but are widely vilified in Russia.

“Excellent news on this sunny day. We are returning home 45 of our people. Thirty-five privates and sergeants, 10 officers,” Yermak said on the telegram app.

“Our people are our greatest value. We continue to fulfil the task of President Zelenskyy ‘to release all our people’ together with the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War,” he added.

Our people are our greatest value. We continue to fulfill the task of President @ZelenskyyUa "to release all our people" together with the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Glory to Ukrainian heroes! We are happy to see you all home! pic.twitter.com/nHiKJ4jgp3

— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) May 6, 2023

Moscow and Kyiv have agreed on a number of prisoner exchanges since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February last year.