Russia accuses Ukraine and Turkey of violating prisoner exchange agreement

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Moscow has accused Kiev and Ankara of violating the terms of a high-profile prisoner exchange after President Volodymyr Zelensky returned home from a trip to Turkey with a group of Ukrainian commanders.

The commanders led the defense of the bombarded city of Mariupol before being forced to surrender after a bloody siege the previous spring. He was transferred to Turkey in September in a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticized Ankara on Sunday for breaking a key promise to keep people in Turkey until the end of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Nobody informed us about it,” Peskov was quoted as saying by the official RIA news agency.

Neither Zelensky nor Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who met on Friday, gave an explanation for the Ukrainian’s release.

Zelensky posted a video of himself hugging the commanders before flying to Ukraine. “We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home,” he said.

The withdrawal of the troops – who had been stuck for weeks at the Azovstal Steel Works in Mariupol – was a symbolic victory for Kiev on the 500th day of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The Ukrainian president marked the occasion on Saturday with a post on Telegram showing him on a visit to Snake Island. The rock in the Black Sea became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance early last year after a border guard at the outpost defiantly defied a Russian order to surrender.

The events capped a busy week for Zelensky, who completed a series of high-profile foreign visits to EU countries ahead of a NATO summit on July 11–12, where members were briefed on Ukraine’s progress toward membership of the military alliance. Hope to discuss. Turkey’s release of the Ukrainian commanders is likely to appease NATO allies worried about Erdogan’s cordial relations with the Kremlin.

Thousands of Ukrainians were killed during Russia’s bloody siege on Mariupol, a once-vibrant port city with a population of some 500,000 residents.

These commanders are from the Azov Regiment and Marine Forces of Ukraine and include Denis Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palmar, Serhiy Volynsky, Oleh Khromenko and Denis Shlega.

The soldiers led the defense of the southeastern port city during Russia’s 80-day siege. From a network of tunnels and bunkers beneath Mariupol’s Azovstal steel factory, the group commanded hundreds of soldiers. His fierce resistance made him a national hero and earned him top state awards. But it also made them valuable prisoners to the Kremlin, who mistakenly thought they were “Nazis” and wanted them away from the battlefield until the end of the war.

In western Lviv on Saturday, the group was greeted as heroes, hugged and cheered by family members and hundreds of supporters.

Prokopenko told the crowd, “Today, we are united and we will continue the fight.” “We will undoubtedly keep our word in battle.”