Mariupol command freed in prisoner swap
Almost 300 people, including five senior Ukrainian commanders who led the dogged defence of Mariupol, were freed by Russia as part of an unexpected prisoner swap.
Under the terms of the deal, which Turkey helped to 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 maintained close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The timing and size of the swap came as a surprise, just hours after Putin announced a partial troop mobilisation in Russia in an apparent escalation of the conflict.
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,” Kyiv resident Tamara Herasymenko, 55, said.
The five senior commanders freed include Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko, and his deputy, Svyatoslav Palamar, both of the Azov battalion, which did much of the fighting in Mariupol, and 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 vast 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 that time.
The three men had helped lead the weeks-long resistance before they and hundreds of Azov fighters surrendered in May to Russian-backed forces.
The five will stay in Turkey until the end of the war.
The Azov regiment is reviled by Putin’s Kremlin as a band of Russia-hating neo-nazis. The battalion denies allegations of fascism, Nazism and racism.
The eventual capture of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, was a big strategic prize for Russia after nearly two months of siege and bombardment, giving it a secure overland route linking the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014, with mainland Russia.