Heroic Guards Who Famously Told Russia to ‘Go F*ck Yourself’ Are Freed

The 19 Ukrainian border guards who famously told an approaching Russian warship to “go fuck yourselves” rather than surrender to them have been returned to Ukraine in a prisoner exchange. The guards, who were manning the tiny Ukrainian outpost of Snake Island (also known as Zmiinyi Island), were initially presumed to have been killed by their Russian invaders. But Ukrainian officials later learned they’d been taken prisoner. The Ukrainian parliament wrote on Twitter late Thursday that the “first exchange of war hostages occurred on President Zelensky’s order.” The 19 guards were exchanged for 11 Russian sailors rescued from a sunken ship near Odessa. They will return home on a ship captured by Russian occupiers while trying to take the guards from Snake Island.