The Ministry of Defense announced the exchange of 55 soldiers from the captivity of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

As a result of the exchange, 55 servicemen of Russia, the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics returned from Ukrainian captivity, reported Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in the daily summary.

“As a result of a complex negotiation process on the exchange, 55 military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, who were in mortal danger in captivity, were returned from the territory of Ukraine controlled by the Kyiv regime tonight,” the report says.

Formerly Turkish agency Anadolu reported on the exchange of prisoners of war between Moscow and Kyiv through the mediation of Ankara. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan thanked the Presidents of the Russian Federation and Ukraine Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky. Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the Ukrainian president, clarified on social networks that Kyiv returned 215 people, including more than a hundred fighters and five commanders of the Azov battalion (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation). Ten foreign mercenaries have also been returned and are now in Saudi Arabia. In addition, Ukrainian businessman and politician Viktor Medvedchuk was returned as a result of the exchange, he added.

Zelensky this morning explainedthat the Azov commanders who returned from captivity will remain in Turkey until the end of hostilities in Ukraine. He also clarified the data on the released mercenaries: these are five British citizens, two US citizens, as well as one citizen of Morocco, Sweden and Croatia.

After the start of the special operation, the parties reported several times about the exchange of prisoners, as well as the release of truckers and sailors held in Ukraine. On May 20, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that 2,439 Ukrainian soldiers left the Azovstal plant in Mariupol and surrendered. In Kyiv, they said that they were working on their return to the territories controlled by Ukraine. But the head of the Donetsk Republic, Denis Pushilin, noted that now the DPR is working on the creation of a tribunal. The Foreign Ministry allowed the exchange of prisoners with Ukraine only after the trial.

On June 29, the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, announced the largest exchange of prisoners of war since the beginning of the special operation, it took place according to the formula 144 by 144. In total, since February, Moscow and Kyiv have already carried out 27 operations to exchange prisoners of war and the bodies of dead servicemen, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said on August 3 .

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