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The crash of a aircraft carrying prisoners of struggle had solid doubt on the way forward for prisoner exchanges.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged tons of of prisoners of struggle, within the first prisoner swap because the crash final week of a Russian navy transport aircraft that Moscow says was carrying 65 Ukrainian troopers.
The Russian Ministry of Defence stated that every facet obtained 195 troopers again and that its troopers could be flown to Moscow to obtain medical and psychological remedy.
“On January 31, because of the negotiation course of, 195 Russian servicemen who had been in mortal hazard in captivity had been returned from territory managed by the Kyiv regime. In return, precisely 195 prisoners from the armed forces of Ukraine had been handed over,” the Defence Ministry stated in a press release.
It was cited by the RIA state information company as saying that the United Arab Emirates had performed a task in brokering the deal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on his official account on X that it was one of many greatest swaps thus far.
He gave a barely greater quantity for the variety of Ukrainians returned. “Our persons are again. 207 of them. We return them residence it doesn’t matter what,” stated Zelenskyy.
Ukraine’s governmental physique accountable for POWs stated that this was the fiftieth prisoner alternate of its variety. It returned residence troopers concerned within the defence of the cities of Mariupol and Kherson, in addition to troopers captured by Russia on Snake Island within the Black Sea.
The physique stated marines and fight medics had been amongst these handed again and that 36 of the returned Ukrainians had accidents or severe diseases.
The 2 nations have carried out periodic prisoner swaps through intermediaries because the struggle started practically two years in the past, regardless of the absence of any peace talks between them because the early months of the battle.
The newest and largest alternate was on January 3, once they traded a complete of 478 captives following mediation by the UAE.
The crash on January 24 of a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft in a area earlier than the same deliberate swap had thrown doubt on the way forward for prisoner exchanges between the 2 sides.
Moscow stated Ukrainian troopers being carried to a scheduled alternate had been killed when the aircraft was shot down by Kyiv’s forces. Kyiv has not outright denied Moscow’s model of occasions however questioned whether or not captured Ukrainian troopers had been truly on board.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday stated {that a} US-made Patriot missile was used to shoot down the navy cargo aircraft.
“The aircraft was shot down, it has already been established for sure, by an American Patriot system,” Putin stated in a televised look.
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