Ukraine announces largest prisoner exchange yet

Ukraine announced the largest exchange of prisoners of war since Russia launched its invasion in February, with 144 soldiers returned to Ukraine, including dozens of soldiers who defended against the Russian siege of Mariupol, a southern port city that became a symbol of Russian repression and Ukrainian defiance.

While the exchange has been shrouded in secrecy, Denis Pushilin, the head of Russian proxy forces in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, said that 144 Russian and proxy forces were returned home in exchange for the 144 Ukrainians.

Over 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered in May after holding out for months in bunkers beneath the sprawling Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol. Their surrender was carefully negotiated between Russia, Ukraine and international mediators and marked the end of one of the war’s most brutal battles.

While Ukraine and Russia have exchanged prisoners over the course of the war — including 17 Ukrainians returned in an exchange announced this week — the fate of the garrison from Mariupol has been among the most sensitive issues of the war.

The Kremlin propaganda machine had long sought to use the far-right origins of the Azov regiment, which played a lead role in the defense of the city, as proof of its false claim that the Ukrainian state has been infected with Nazism.

In his speech announcing the Russian invasion, President Vladimir Putin promised to “denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians.”

Following the surrender of the last garrison in Mariupol, some Russian lawmakers were quick to call for the death penalty and even proposed a ban on any exchange of prisoners that would allow members of the Azov regiment to go free.