82 Russians and 140 Ukrainians were able to return home on Saturday 31 December. “We will recover all our people,” promised Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff.
Shortly before Vladimir Putin’s New Year’s speech on Saturday evening, his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu indicated that a new exchange of prisoners had taken place on the last day of 2022 between kyiv and Moscow.
A total of 222 men were released on Saturday. 82 Russian side, 140 Ukrainian side. The announcement was confirmed by Andriy Yermak, director of Volodymyr Zelensky’s cabinet.
“We will recover all our people”
“For New Year, we not only repelled enemy missile attacks, but also united our people,” he tweeted, referring to the 12 Russian cruise missiles intercepted on Saturday by Ukrainian air defense.
Then to continue: “A new and important exchange of prisoners 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 Slava Ukrainian! (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 an injured soldier, smoking leaning on a crutch.
“We will get all our people back. There are no other options,” promised Andriy Yermak.
270 soldiers exchanged in September
Since the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, numerous prisoner exchanges have been carried out between Kyiv and Moscow. The most important dates back to last September. 270 soldiers had been exchanged between the two countries, 55 Russians and 215 Ukrainians.
Among those recovered by kyiv in this exchange were many men who had fought at the Azovstal steelworks, 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 able to leave Russian jails. But some commanders had not been 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, 107 on the Russian and Ukrainian sides, were released.
