The clear signal: Moscow and Kyiv are talking. And they negotiate, if only to save their respective men.
FROM OUR MAIL
ODESSA They freed her with a prisoner exchange. The first since the beginning of the war. Nineteen Ukrainian sailors, including 13 from Snake Island, those who sent the enemy to that country, those reported dead in the hours after the invasion, are now safe. In return, Kyiv granted Moscow the release of 11 Russian sailors rescued from a sunken ship off the coast of Odessa. The news was released by the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, which tweeted that the exchange took place on the orders of Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky himself. As proof, the picture of the smiling group immortalized in front of a bus.
The story of the sailors guarding the Black Sea island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, had already attracted attention on February 25, the day after the invasion began, when an audio of them hearing the voice was broadcast could of a Russian officer shouting: This is a military warship. This is a Russian military warship. I suggest you lay down your arms and surrender to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and casualties. Otherwise you will be bombed. Then silence and the answer: Russian warship, fuck yourself.
In the hours that followed, news broke that the Snake Island Coast Guard had all died heroes. Until Moscow’s denials: They are alive and have been captured. And that must have been it. So much so that the Ukrainian authorities immediately announced that they had started negotiations for her release. Our sailors will return home on the rescue ship Sapphire, which was hijacked by Russian occupiers trying to withdraw Ukrainian troops from Zmiiny Island, the Ukrainian parliament announced on Thursday. Who added an important detail: the boat takes our sailors home and is then sent to a Turkish port, a sign that negotiations must not have been easy and required external intervention, as is often the case with prisoner exchanges .
On Thursday, Moscow and Kyiv also reached an agreement on another 10 military personnel, in what Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk called the first full exchange of prisoners in the army. And always, Vereshchuk added: They are all safe and will receive the help they need. No comment from the Kremlin. But the clear signal. Moscow and Kyiv are talking to each other. And they negotiate, if only to save their respective men.
March 26, 2022 (Modification March 26, 2022 | 08:45)
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