Hundreds freed in prisoner swap
Zelenskyy hails release of Azov `superheroes'
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed as “superheroes” the senior Ukrainian commanders, including those who led the dogged defence of Mariupol, who were freed by Russia as part of a prisoner swap involving almost 300 people, including foreigners.
Under the terms of the deal, which Turkey helped broker, 215 Ukrainians — most captured after the fall of the port city — were released on Wednesday. In exchange, Ukraine sent back 55 Russians and pro-moscow Ukrainians.
Ten foreigners were also freed following mediation by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Among them was Briton Aiden Aslin, who had been sentenced to death by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, who said they were “out of the danger zone.”
The timing and size of the swap came as a surprise. Earlier in the day Putin had announced a partial troop mobilization in Russia in an apparent escalation of the conflict that began in February. Pro-russian separatists had said last month that the Mariupol commanders would go on trial.
“Five superheroes have been exchanged for 55 of those who deserve neither compassion nor pity,” Zelenskyy said in a nighttime address that welcomed the broader release as “a victory for the country.”
Russia's defence ministry said 55 servicemen had been returned in the largest prisoner exchange with Ukraine since the start of the war.
The Russian- installed separatist head of the Donetsk People's Republic said pro-kremlin Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk had been freed. Medvedchuk, a personal friend of Putin, headed a banned pro-russian party in Ukraine and was facing treason charges.
Ukrainians cheered the swap.
“We live for the soldiers. They are our pride, our glory, our joy – our boys. I only hope everyone can be freed. And that our mother- Ukraine is freed too,” 55- year- old Kyiv resident Tamara Herasymenko said.
The five senior commanders freed include Lt. Col. Denys Prokopenko, and his deputy, Svyatoslav Palamar, both of the Azov battalion, which did much of the fighting in Mariupol and is lionized in Ukraine.
Also freed was Serhiy Volynsky, commander of the 36th Marine Brigade, who in April issued a video message from where fighters were holed up in bunkers below the steel works in Mariupol.
“This is our appeal to the world. It may be our last. We may have only a few days or hours left,” he said at the time. The three men helped lead the resistance before they and hundreds of Azov fighters surrendered in May.