Ukraine, Russia carry out largest prisoner exchange since conflict start
Ukraine and Russia conducted their first prisoner exchange on March 24. Prisoners swapped included 95 fighters who took part in defence of the besieged Azovstal steelworkers in Mariupol.
Ukraine and Russia carried out their largest prisoner exchange since the start of the conflict on February 24, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday in a statement on Telegram.
The agency said 144 Ukrainians aged 19 and 65 years returned home as a result of the exchange.
According to the statement, under the swap, Russia released 59 soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine, including 43 from the Azov regiment which fought for Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant.
Most of the released Ukrainians have severe injuries, it said.
Ukraine and Russia conducted their first prisoner exchange on March 24
According to Aljazeera, the intelligence agency said: “This is the largest exchange since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion,” .
There was no comment from Russia about a prisoner swap.
However, the head of the pro-Russia self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine Denis Pushilin said it had also secured the release of 144 soldiers, including its fighters and those of the Russian army.
“We handed over to Kyiv the same number of prisoners from Ukrainian armed units, most of whom were wounded,” he said.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmygal confirmed the exchange on Telegram, saying only that the work to free the prisoners had been “complicated”.
Hundreds more Ukrainians are still thought to be held by Russia and its pro-Moscow separatist proxies in eastern Ukraine, but their precise whereabouts are not known.
In particular, Kyiv has worried about the fate of hundreds of fighters from the Azov regiment that played a prominent role in the defence of Mariupol and its Azovstal steelworks before being encircled and eventually laying down their arms to Russian forces.
The prisoner swap included the handover of 43 members of the Azov regiment, a National Guard unit that Russia says is a dangerous far-right battalion. Their release is a promising sign for Ukrainians hoping for the release of other fighters from the unit.