Since an exchange of prisoners, five Ukrainian defenders of the Azovstal plant have been waiting in Turkey for the end of the war, as agreed. Now the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy took them with him on the return flight to Kiev. The Kremlin protests.
The return of five senior Ukrainian officers who were in Turkey following a prisoner exchange has sparked outrage in Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he brought home the commanders who had been involved in defending the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol in spring 2022 on the way back from a visit to Turkey.
He referred in a message referred to previous negotiations with the Turkish side and described the soldiers, some of whom belonged to the Azov regiment, as heroes. Selenskyj met her at Istanbul airport and congratulated her on her return.
President Zelenskyj accompanied the soldiers on the return flight and described them as heroes.
Kremlin speaks of violation of agreements
The Russian government responded immediately to the message. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Turkey of violating agreements by allowing Ukrainian soldiers who were prisoners of war to leave the country. The men should have stayed in Turkey until the end of the war as part of the prisoner exchange, Peskov said, according to the Russian news agency Ria. The Russian government was not informed about the release of the soldiers.
It is currently unclear why the five soldiers were allowed to accompany Selenskyj from Turkey to Ukraine. The Turkish government has not yet provided any information on this. However, since Turkey has repeatedly acted as a mediator since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, including in the important grain agreement, the process could have a noticeable impact on further negotiations.
Commanders were originally supposed to stay in Turkey
Shortly after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the port city of Mariupol became the center of bitter fighting. The battles around the city surrounded by Russian troops lasted several months. In the end, several thousand Ukrainian soldiers were holed up in the Azovstal steelworks, including fighters from the nationalist Azov regiment. The last defenders only surrendered in May.
Russia actually wanted to put the Ukrainian fighters on trial. The government in Moscow repeatedly used the nationalist Azov regiment as justification for the war of aggression and for the claim that it was allegedly “liberating” Ukraine from “fascists”. But over time, hundreds of men and women were released as part of the exchange of prisoners of war. Russia also deported several commanders of the regiment to Turkey. According to the agreement, they were supposed to stay there until the end of the war.
The Azov Regiment is a former volunteer battalion, controversial because of its right-wing extremist past. In 2014, the combat group was formally integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard. At that time, Azov members took part in the fight against Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia classifies the Azov regiment as a “terrorist organization”.