However in a stunning announcement Wednesday, the Russian Protection Ministry stated that 195 Russian troopers had been exchanged for “precisely” the identical variety of Ukrainian troopers.
“The freed service members will likely be transported by plane of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ navy transport aviation to Moscow for remedy and rehabilitation,” the ministry stated in an announcement.
In the meantime, showing to contradict Moscow’s numbers, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Therapy of Prisoners of Conflict stated Wednesday that 207 Ukrainian prisoners had been launched, together with 27 officers and fighters captured through the battle of Azovstal, the metal plant within the metropolis of Mariupol, which Russia now occupies.
A minimum of 36 of the Ukrainians launched suffered from critical accidents or sicknesses, the coordination headquarters stated.
Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of workers, confirmed the swap, posting photos of launched troopers wrapped in Ukrainian flags on Telegram.
“That is the second main change after an extended break. And we proceed the work and success of the president’s activity — to return everybody,” Yermak wrote. “We’ve a giant mission, a lot of our individuals nonetheless stay in captivity, we’re working to get them dwelling … because of everybody who waited and got here again. Ukrainians are the very best worth.”
Yermak added that these launched included troopers, in addition to law enforcement officials and members of the nationwide guard, seized in Mariupol, Snake Island, Kherson and Kharkiv.
The swap proceeded with none new details about who exactly was on board the Russian navy airplane shot down final week over Russia’s western Belgorod area, close to the Ukrainian border.
Russia stated all 74 individuals on board had been killed — 65 Ukrainian POWs, six crew members and three different people.
The Russian Overseas Ministry accused Ukraine of committing “a terrorist act” and requested an pressing U.N. Safety Council assembly in reference to the crash. The session was held in New York, however no new info emerged then, both.
“The assault on the airplane was a deliberate and acutely aware motion,” Russia’s Overseas Ministry stated. “The terrorist assault clearly demonstrates the lack of the Kyiv regime to barter.”
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that the destruction of the jet would intrude with future exchanges.
“Will this cease exchanges or not? We received’t cease exchanges, we have to acquire our guys,” Putin stated in a televised political assembly associated to the March presidential election, wherein he’s in search of a fifth time period.
Putin additionally asserted Wednesday that the airplane was shot down by an American Patriot air protection system, and he made reference to potential plans for a demilitarized zone that would shield Russian territory from Western-supplied long-range missiles.
America has prohibited Ukraine from utilizing its donated weapons to hit targets on Russian soil. The airplane was shut sufficient to Ukraine that it might have been shot down with any variety of weapons accessible to the Ukrainian navy.
The point out of a demilitarized zone recommended that Putin needs to cement management over Ukrainian territory that his forces now occupy. In violation of worldwide legislation, he has declared 4 Ukrainian areas — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — to be annexed to Russia, along with Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014.
“This line needs to be at such a distance from our territory that might guarantee safety, having in thoughts long-range weapons of international manufacture, which the Ukrainian authorities use to shell peaceable cities,” Putin stated.
Zelensky has pledged that Ukraine will expel Russia’s forces from all of its sovereign territory.
