TURKEY VIOLATED AGREEMENTS BY RELEASING UKRAINIAN FIGHTERS, KREMLIN SAYS

Volodymyr Zelenskiy with the freed Ukrainian commanders returning from Turkey. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Twitter

Sat 08 July 2023:

Turkey has violated agreements by releasing detained commanders of a unit that for weeks defended a steelworks in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Peskov, quoted by RIA news agency, said under the terms of a prisoner exchange the Azovstal fighters were to remain in Turkey until the end of the war.

Russia had not been informed of their release, he said.

Peskov told Russia’s RIA news agency: “No one informed us about this. According to the agreements, these ringleaders were to remain on the territory of Turkey until the end of the conflict.”

Peskov said the release was a result of heavy pressure from Turkey’s Nato allies in the run-up to next week’s summit of the military alliance at which Ukraine hopes to receive a positive sign about its future membership.

WATCH | Ukraine's Zelenskiy brings home Azovstal commanders released to Turkey

"We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home," said Zelenskiy who met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for talks in Istanbul on Friday. pic.twitter.com/HLjzfjdgfI

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) July 8, 2023

Five commanders of Ukraine’s former garrison in Mariupol, forced to live in Turkey under the terms of a prisoner exchange last year, have returned to Ukraine with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was on a visit to Istanbul.

“We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Ukrainian soldiers Denys Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Serhiy Volynsky, Oleh Khomenko, Denys Shleha. They will finally be with their relatives.”

Zelenskyy posted a one-minute video showing himself and other officials shaking hands and hugging the smiling commanders before they boarded a Czech aeroplane together.

He gave no explanation for why the commanders were being allowed to return home now.

The commanders, hailed as heroes in Ukraine, led last year’s defence of the port, the biggest city Russia captured in its invasion.

Thousands of civilians were killed inside Mariupol when Russian forces laid waste the city during a three-month siege.

The Ukrainian defenders held out in tunnels and bunkers under the Azovstal steel plant, until they were finally ordered by Kyiv to surrender in May last year.

Moscow freed some of them in September in a prisoner swap brokered by Ankara, under terms that required the commanders to remain in Turkey until the end of the war.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

______________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent