Ukraine announces exchange of 215 military prisoners including Azovstal defense chiefs
“We managed to free 215 people”, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Andriy Yermak told television. Among them are defense chiefs of the Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol, a symbol of resistance to the Russian invasion.
Russia has recovered 55 prisoners, including former MP Viktor Medvedchuk, a close friend of Vladimir Putin, accused of high treason in Ukraine, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily address. “In exchange, we gave 55 people who deserve neither regret nor sympathy”those who “fought once morest Ukraine and those who betrayed Ukraine”he launched.
As part of this “long-planned operation”five military commanders, “superheroes”, including Azovstal defense chiefs, were transferred to Turkey, Zelensky said. Negotiations on their exchange were “the longest, the most difficult”he added.
Defenders of Azovstal in Turkey
These people will stay in Turkey “in absolute safety and in comfortable conditions” up” At the end of the war “ but will be able to meet their families there, under the terms of an agreement with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the Ukrainian head of state.
A total of 188 “Heroes of Azovstal and Mariupol” of which 108 servicemen from the Azov regiment were exchanged, he said. “We will do everything to save all those who are in Russian captivity”promised Mr. Zelensky, according to which among the exchanged prisoners there are pregnant women.
Ten foreign POWs – five British, two Americans, one Moroccan, one Swede and one Croat – announced to be transferred from Russia to Saudi Arabia earlier today as part of an exchange between Moscow and Ukraine by Saudi diplomacy, are part of this exchange, according to Mr. Zelensky. The last Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol, entrenched in the immense Azovstal steelworks, on the Sea of Azov, had surrendered to Russian forces between May 16 and 20, following three months of intense fighting.