- Scenes of emotional tears and joy as the five finally reunited with their families
- They had been released as part of prison swap but must remain in Turkey
- There were scenes of heartbreaking joy as five of the commanders that oversaw the three month defence of the port city were finally able to embrace their excited children and hold their loved ones once again.
mong them were Azov commander Denis Prokopenko, his deputy Svyatoslav Palamar, Denys Shleha and Marine commander Serhiy Volynsky, each having withstood months of torture, neglect, malnutrition as the Russians reneged on the promises they made prior to the defenders' surrender.
The four heroes were awarded the Hero of Ukraine title and the Order of the Golden Star by Andriy Yermak, Head of the Presidential Administration, for holding out in the sprawling Azovstal steel plant on the Black Sea coast while under constant bombardment by besieging Russian forces.
Part of the deal that the two warring sides struck to bring them home was that they must sit out the entirety of the war in Turkey in an undisclosed location under the auspices of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The joyous reunion with their anxiously waiting families was something many feared would never happen again after they were last seen being bussed off to prisons likened to concentration camps.