The 19 heroic Ukrainian sailors who famously told an approaching Russian warship to “go fuck yourselves” rather than surrender have been freed and returned to Ukraine in a prisoner exchange, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced late Thursday.
The 19 guards were exchanged for 11 Russian sailors rescued from a sunken ship near Odessa, Vereshchuk said, according to NPR.
The border guards were initially feared to have been killed, but Ukrainian officials later learned they’d been taken prisoner by Russian troops.
The “first exchange of war hostages occurred on President Zelensky’s order,” the Ukrainian parliament wrote on Twitter. . “Additionally, today, Ukraine exchanged 11 Russian sailors we rescued from a sunken ship near Odesa.”
