Ukraine’s Zelensky brings home Azovstal commanders released to Turkey
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KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky returned from a visit to Turkey on Saturday, bringing home five former commanders of Ukraine’s garrison in Mariupol despite a prisoner exchange under which the men were meant to remain in Turkey.
Russia immediately denounced the release of the men. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Turkey had violated the prisoner exchange terms and had failed to inform Moscow.
The commanders, lionised as heroes in Ukraine, led 2022’s defence of the port, the biggest city Russia captured in its invasion.
Thousands of civilians were killed in Mariupol when Russian forces laid the city to waste during a three-month siege.
The Ukrainian defenders held out in tunnels and bunkers under the Azovstal steel plant until they were finally ordered by Kyiv to surrender
Moscow freed some of them in September in a prisoner swop brokered by Ankara, under terms that required the commanders to remain in Turkey until the end of the war.
“We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home,” said Mr Zelensky, who met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks in Istanbul
“Ukrainian soldiers Denys Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Serhiy Volynsky, Oleh Khomenko, Denys Shleha. They will finally be with their relatives,” he said, on the Telegram messaging app.
Mr Peskov told Russia’s RIA news agency: “No one informed us about this.
“According to the agreements, these ringleaders were to remain on the territory of Turkey until the end of the conflict.”
Mr Peskov said the release was a result of heavy pressure from Turkey’s Nato allies in the run-up to this week’s summit of the military alliance at which Ukraine hopes to receive a positive sign about its future membership.“Turkey, of course, as a Nato member, shows its solidarity with the alliance. We understand all this perfectly well,” Mr Peskov said.
One of the returning Ukrainian commanders, Mr Prokopenko, was quoted by Interfax Ukraine news agency as saying he would go back to the front.
“That is why we have come back to Ukraine. It is our main aim,” said Mr Prokopenko.
In his remarks, Mr Zelensky gave no explanation for why the commanders were being allowed to return home now.
Turkey’s Directorate of Communications did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr Zelensky posted a one-minute video showing himself and other officials shaking hands and hugging the smiling commanders before they boarded a Czech aeroplane together.
Many Ukrainians hailed the news on social media.
“Finally! The best news ever. Congratulations to our brothers!” Major Maksym Zhorin, who is fighting now in eastern Ukraine, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Mr Zelensky returned to Ukraine in time for a church service on Sunday to commemorate with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda the 80th anniversary of the Volhynia massacre.
The event was held in Lutsk, about 100km east of the current Polish-Ukrainian border.
In the final years of World War II, Ukrainian nationalist units targeted Polish national minorities, killing as many as 100,000 people – including many women and children – in a region that was then within the borders of Nazi-occupied Poland but is now in western Ukraine.
Ukraine describes the Volhynia tragedy as part of mutual ethnic purges by Poles and Ukrainians.
Poland’s Parliament passed a resolution in 2016 to declare the actions a genocide. Warsaw has clashed with Kyiv at times over a ban on proposed Polish exhumation works in the region.
But on Sunday, Mr Duda emphasised the need for unity with Ukraine.
“We are stronger together,” he said on social media, ahead of a Nato summit where Kyiv is hoping to get a clear signal it could one day join the alliance.
Poland is one of Ukraine’s biggest supporters within Nato and has said it wants “security guarantees” for the country from other Nato members. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
