Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky left Turkey this Saturday with five commanders who had led the resistance for weeks during the Russian siege of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol (south), and who had been captured by Moscow forces.
“We are returning from Turkey and bringing our heroes home,” Zelensky said in a Twitter post that coincided with the 500th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The five commanders of the Azov regiment had been in Turkey since September 2022 under the protection of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who negotiated their release in a prisoner exchange with Russia.
Erdogan’s brokerage allowed the release of 215 Ukrainian soldiers, almost all captured in Mariupol, in exchange for 55 Russians and Ukrainians linked to the Kremlin, including Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin .
Zelensky’s statements are accompanied by a video showing him greeting the five soldiers before boarding a Czech government plane, which has been used by the Ukrainian leader in his travels in recent days.
Russia captured about 2,500 Ukrainian troops at the Mariupol steel mill in May 2022 and still holds about 1,900.
Although they surrendered, these soldiers’ weeks of resistance against a much superior enemy made them a symbol in the bloodiest battle of the war in Ukraine, which left the city in ruins until the fighting in Bakhmut, Donetsk province (East-East ). ), which has lasted since last August.
Before leaving, Zelensky had time to join Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, in a religious ceremony honoring Ukrainians killed by Russian aggression.
The Ukrainian leader thanked Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide, for his support and for condemning Russia’s aggression.
Bartholomew I revealed that he prays for the cessation of hostilities and the restoration of peace in Ukraine and reiterated his request for the Russian government to repatriate the Ukrainian children transferred to Russia, the Anadolu news agency said.
In Istanbul on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky also thanked his Turkish counterpart for showing support for the country’s intention to join NATO.
“I was pleased to hear the president say that Ukraine deserves to join NATO,” Zelensky said at a joint press conference with Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan said that day, after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, that Ukraine “deserves to join NATO”.
Zelensky thus ended a tour that took him to Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey since Thursday.
These visits will take place shortly before the NATO summit on 11-12 July in Vilnius, Lithuania, which will focus on Ukraine’s aspirations to join the Atlantic Alliance and the Russian invasion.
Today, Ukraine’s president marked 500 days of war by saluting the country’s soldiers in a video from a Black Sea island, which has also become a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion.
Speaking on Serpent Island, Zelensky honored the Ukrainian soldiers who fought to defend the island and all other defenders of the country, saying that taking back control of the island was “great proof that Ukraine has lost every part of its territory. will reconquer”.
“I want – from here, from this place of victory – to thank all our soldiers for these 500 days,” Zelenskyy said. “Thank you to everyone fighting for Ukraine,” she added.
Russian forces took control of the small rocky island on February 24, 2022, the day Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, in the apparent hope of using it as a base for an attack on Odessa in the south, Ukraine’s largest port and the naval headquarters. .
The island took on legendary significance for the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion when Ukrainian troops were ordered to surrender or be bombed by a Russian ship. The reaction of the Ukrainian army on the radio was “fuck off…”.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: DN
