Shortly before Vladimir Putin’s New Year’s speech on Saturday night, his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu indicated that a new prisoner exchange between Kyiv and Moscow had taken place on the last day of 2022.
A total of 222 men were released on Saturday. 82 from the Russian side, 140 from the Ukrainian side. The announcement was confirmed by Andriy Yermak, director of Volodymyr Zelensky’s cabinet.
“We will get all our people back”
“For the New Year, we not only repel enemy missile attacks, but also unite our people,” he tweeted, referring to the 12 Russian cruise missiles intercepted by Ukrainian air defense on Saturday.
He then continues: “A new major prisoner exchange has been successfully carried out: 140 Ukrainian citizens are returning home.”
Andriy Yermak accompanied his tweet with a video showing some of the released Ukrainian prisoners. We can see soldiers in front of several Ukrainian flags, shouting ukrainian slava! (Glory to Ukraine in French, editor’s note).
Photos have also been shared, this time showing a reunion between what appears to be a mother and her son, as well as a wounded soldier, smoking on a crutch.
“We are going to get all our people back. There are no other options,” Andriy Yermak vowed.
270 soldiers exchanged in September
Since the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, numerous prisoner exchanges have taken place between Kyiv and Moscow. The most important dates from last September. 270 soldiers had been exchanged between the two countries, 55 Russian and 215 Ukrainian.
Among those recovered by Kyiv in this exchange were many men who had fought at the Azovstal steel works, located in the now-occupied city of Mariupol.
108 men belonging to the Azov regiment, accused of being Nazis by the Russians, had also been allowed out of Russian prisons. But some commanders were not allowed to reach Ukrainian soil.
They had been transferred to Turkey, where they are expected to remain until the end of the war, under an agreement signed under the aegis of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
During the September exchange, Moscow had for its part obtained the release of Viktor Medvedchuk, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of high treason in Ukraine. Finally, on November 3, 214 soldiers were released, 107 on the Russian and Ukrainian sides.
Source: BFM TV
