- President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that five Ukrainian soldiers have returned from Turkey.
- Russia alleged that Turkey had violated an agreement to keep its soldiers until the end of the war.
- The comments came after Turkish President Erdogan announced that he would welcome President Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky summoned five previously imprisoned Azov battalion commanders during a recent visit to Turkey, but Russia is causing chaos and Ankara says it will hold them until the end of the war. accused of withdrawing the agreement.
Saturday’s video Posted By: Zelenskythe commander of a battalion, a white supremacist militia within the Ukrainian National Guard, is seen hugging a Ukrainian President before boarding plane. The commanders were captured in the port city of Mariupol.
“We are returning from Turkey and bringing our heroes home,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters. Russian news agency RIA According to an agreement between Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, Turkey was supposed to keep prisoners in the country. The comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced he would invite Russian President Vladimir Putin. Discuss the export of Ukrainian grain During the war, according to the outlet.
“Nobody informed us about this,” Peskov said, according to Reuters. “According to the agreement, these ringleaders were to remain in Turkish territory until the end of the conflict.”
Russian forces captured hundreds of Ukrainian fighters in a three-month bloody battle in Mariupol before surrendering in May 2022. Many of the soldiers who hid in the bunkers and tunnels beneath the Azokhstal Ironworks and guarded the front line were members of the Azov Battalion.
A prisoner exchange organized with Turkish and Saudi aid in September allowed hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers to return home. President Zelensky announced that part of the deal was for five commanders of the Azov battalion, which led the charge in Mariupol, to remain in Turkey. until the war is over. President Zelensky did not specify how the situation had changed to allow his commanders to return home.
Twenty-two other Azov soldiers captured in Mariupol are now on trial in Russia after Russia designated the battalion as a terrorist group. Human Rights Watch accused the trial of violating the Geneva Conventions. treatment of prisoners of war.
Spokesmen for Zelensky, Erdogan and Putin did not immediately respond to an insider’s request for comment.