18 conducted their 58th prisoner exchange, involving 190 detainees, including Butkevych. The activist was serving a 13-year sentence in a Russian penal colony at the time of his release.The exchange came without warning, Butkevych told the Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske. "No, I didn't know, it was unexpected," he said. "Yesterday morning, after the inspection, they told me that I was leaving in half an hour, but they didn't tell me where. Accordingly, I packed my things because I thought I was being transported, not for an exchange. We found out about the exchange by accident on the way. It was a double surprise." Butkevych was one of 95 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) returned on Oct. 18. The list also included 34 members of the Azov Regiment, who defended the southern city of Mariupol in the early months of Russia's full-scale invasion.Before the war, Butkevych worked with a Ukrainian NGO supporting internally displaced persons and with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ukraine.