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Ukrainian prisoners of war after the prisoner exchange: renewed action
Photo: dpa
According to official information, Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war for the second time within a few days. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that 100 Ukrainian soldiers, national guardsmen, border guards and secret service employees had returned home. "We work for everyone and everyone and won't stop until we have brought everyone back," he wrote on Telegram. According to the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow, 100 Russian soldiers also returned from captivity. The United Arab Emirates helped broker the exchange.
The two countries last exchanged around 400 prisoners on January 31st. An exchange was also planned for January 24th - but this failed because a Russian military transport plane crashed or was shot down over the Russian border region of Belgorod. The exact course of events is unclear. According to Moscow, 65 prisoners of war were on the plane being transported for exchange and were killed. Ukraine, meanwhile, doubts whether the Ilyushin Il-76 actually transported prisoners.
Zelensky wrote on Telegram that most of the returned Ukrainians were “defenders of Mariupol.” According to Human Rights Watch, at least 8,000 people have been killed by fighting or war-related causes in the months-long siege of the Ukrainian port city by Russian troops. The human rights organization said the total number of deaths could be significantly higher than the figure given as some graves contained multiple bodies and some sites may not have been identified.
Human Rights Watch's estimate relies on satellite and other images of burial sites. The capture of the city was one of the largest battles of the nearly two-year war between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine says tens of thousands have been killed but cannot give an exact number because it has no access to the city, which is now under Russian control.
aeh/dpa/Reuters