However in a shocking announcement Wednesday, the Russian Protection Ministry stated that 195 Russian squaddies have been exchanged for “precisely” the similar collection of Ukrainian squaddies.
“The freed provider participants shall be transported via airplane of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ army delivery aviation to Moscow for remedy and rehabilitation,” the ministry stated in a observation.
In the meantime, showing to contradict Moscow’s numbers, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Remedy of Prisoners of Warfare stated Wednesday that 207 Ukrainian prisoners have been launched, together with 27 officials and combatants captured throughout the struggle of Azovstal, the metal plant within the town of Mariupol, which Russia now occupies.
A minimum of 36 of the Ukrainians launched suffered from severe accidents or diseases, the coordination headquarters stated.
Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s leader of personnel, showed the change, posting footage of launched squaddies wrapped in Ukrainian flags on Telegram.
“That is the second one main alternate after a protracted smash. And we proceed the paintings and achievement of the president’s process — to go back everybody,” Yermak wrote. “Now we have a large venture, a lot of our other people nonetheless stay in captivity, we’re running to get them house … because of everybody who waited and got here again. Ukrainians are the easiest price.”
Yermak added that the ones launched integrated squaddies, in addition to law enforcement officials and participants of the nationwide guard and police, seized in Mariupol, Snake Island, Kherson and Kharkiv.
The change proceeded with none new details about who exactly used to be on board the Russian army aircraft shot down ultimate week over Russia’s western Belgorod area, close to the Ukrainian border.
Russia stated all 74 other people on board have been killed, together with 65 Ukrainian POWs, six team participants and 3 different people.
The Russian Overseas Ministry accused Ukraine of committing “a terrorist act” and asked an pressing U.N. Safety Council assembly in reference to the crash. The consultation used to be held in New York, however no new knowledge emerged then, both.
“The assault at the aircraft used to be a planned and aware motion,” Russia’s Overseas Ministry stated. “The terrorist assault obviously demonstrates the lack of the Kyiv regime to barter.”
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that the destruction of the jet would intervene with long run exchanges.
“Will this forestall exchanges or now not? We gained’t forestall exchanges, we want to acquire our guys,” Putin stated in a televised political assembly associated with the March presidential election, through which he is looking for a 5th time period.
Putin additionally asserted Wednesday that the aircraft used to be shot down via an American Patriot air protection machine, and he made connection with doable plans for a demilitarized zone that might offer protection to Russian territory from Western-supplied long-range missiles.
The USA has prohibited Ukraine from the use of its donated guns to hit goals on Russian soil. The aircraft used to be shut sufficient to Ukraine that it would had been shot down with any collection of guns to be had to the Ukrainian army.
The point out of a demilitarized zone recommended that Putin needs to cement keep an eye on over Ukrainian territory that his forces now occupy. In violation of global legislation, he has declared 4 Ukrainian areas — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — to be annexed to Russia, along with Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014.
“This line must be at this sort of distance from our territory that will be sure safety, having in thoughts long-range weapons of overseas manufacture, which the Ukrainian government use to shell non violent towns,” Putin stated.
Zelensky has pledged that Ukraine will expel Russia’s forces from all of its sovereign territory.
