In . – 05/24/2022 08:17 (act 05/24/2022 08:17)
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy wants to exchange prisoners at the Azov steelworks in Mariupol ©AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is ready to exchange prisoners at the Azov steelworks in Mariupol for Russian soldiers captured by Ukraine.
“We have to change them,” Zelenskyy said, according to the Ukrainian agency Interfax, during a video call to the Ukrainian home in Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum is currently taking place. The exchange is a political decision that depends on the support of many states.
More than 2,400 fighters from the Azov Plant surrendered
All UN members – especially those with experience in such matters – must intervene. At the Mariupol steelworks in southern Ukraine, the last of more than 2,400 Ukrainian fighters surrendered on Friday night after weeks of siege. As prisoners of war, they really enjoy protection. There are also calls from the Russian side to bring them to justice. In Ukraine, a first Russian soldier was sentenced to life in prison for war crimes on Monday. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
Despite the fall of Mariupol, an adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister sees the main military objective achieved there. “The main objective was achieved in Mariupol. It was to contain the Russian formations, (…) more than 20,000 Russian soldiers. And this was possible thanks to the exploits of the defenders of Mariupol and the defenders who later were in the Azovstal plant “Yuriy Sak said on Tuesday on the ARD “Morgenmagazin”. As a result, Russian troops would not have been able to conquer other areas in eastern Ukraine.
Zelenskyy wants to negotiate directly with Putin
When asked about a possible recapture of Crimea, which Russia had annexed since 2014, Zelenskyy responded in the video link that Davos would cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers. He is only willing to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin if the end of the war is at stake. “Otherwise, there’s nothing to discuss.” Zelenskyi declined to meet with other representatives from the Russian side. In a country like Russia, the end of the war is only decided personally by the president.
Three civilians killed in Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine
Meanwhile, three civilians were killed in Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine on Monday, according to Ukrainian sources. Six other people were injured, wrote the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, on Telegram. In addition, railway infrastructure was destroyed in the east of the country. Governor Valentyn Resnichenko said on his Telegram channel that four rocket launches in the Dnipropetrovsk region had severely damaged rails and airlines. So no one was hurt. It is not yet known when train services will be able to resume. The war of Russian aggression against the neighboring country has been going on for three months.
The Ukrainian army said it had destroyed eight tanks, a drone, six aircraft and other military equipment on the Russian side. It is said that a Russian missile was shot down in the Novoukrainka region. The information could not be independently verified.
Russia wants to set up military bases in eastern Ukraine
According to Ukrainian information, Russia is expanding military police command structures in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian general staff wrote on Monday night that 19 so-called commander’s offices had been set up in the occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia.
According to Russian news agency RIA, pro-Russian officials in the occupied Kherson region have confirmed the project. “There should be a Russian military base in the Kherson region,” quoted RIA Kirill Stremousov as deputy head of “regional civil-military administration.” “The entire population wants this. This is important and will be a guarantee for the security of the region and its inhabitants.”