The largest prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine took place on Wednesday, the largest since the war: around 300 people were involved, including Ukrainians, Russians and ten foreign fighters who had joined the Ukrainian army.
The timing of this exchange was seen as very surprising given that the military efforts of the two armies appear to be intensifying at this stage of the war: after Ukraine’s recent major victories in the north-east of the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced a “partial mobilization announced in Russia.
Among the exchanged prisoners are 215 Ukrainians, most of them soldiers who fought in the first months of the war to defend Mariupol, a port city in the south of the country that was long under Russian siege. In return, Ukraine released 55 pro-Russian Russians and Ukrainians, including Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian politician at the head of a pro-Russian party considered one of Putin’s key allies in Ukraine. Had he not been released, he would have been charged with treason.
Some of the Ukrainian soldiers rescued from Russia (Press Office of the Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
At the moment, Russia has not commented on the prisoner swap, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was “clearly a victory” for his country and thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who mediated lengthy negotiations to reach an agreement .
Among the liberated Ukrainians are five commanders who will remain in Turkey until the end of the war: their release was also particularly difficult, Zelensky said. One of them is Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko,
Commander of the controversial Azov Battalion, a militia incorporated into the Ukrainian army and explicitly advocating neo-Nazi positions.
Ten foreign fighters who had joined the Ukrainian army in recent months were also involved in the prisoner exchange: Saudi Arabia took part in these negotiations, where the ten people were to arrive by plane on Wednesday evening. There are five British citizens, two Americans, one Croat, one Moroccan and one Swede.