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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy returned from a visit to Turkey on Saturday, bringing home five former commanders of Ukraine’s garrison in Mariupol despite a prisoner exchange last year under which the men were meant to remain in Turkey.
Russia immediately denounced the release of the men. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Turkey had violated the prisoner exchange terms and had failed to inform Moscow.
The commanders, lionised 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 the city to waste during a three-month siege.
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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.
[ Ukraine: Siege of Mariupol ends as some injured troops taken into Russia ]
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.
“We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home,” said Mr Zelenskiy who met Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan for talks in Istanbul on Friday.
“Ukrainian soldiers Denys Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Serhiy Volynsky, Oleh Khomenko, Denys Shleha. They will finally be with their relatives,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Mr 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.”
Mr 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.
In his remarks, Mr Zelenskiy gave no explanation for why the commanders were being allowed to return home now. Turkey’s directorate of communications did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr Zelenskiy posted a one-minute video showing himself and other officials shaking hands and hugging the smiling commanders before they boarded a Czech aeroplane together.
Many Ukrainians hailed the news on social media.
“Finally! The best news ever. Congratulations to our brothers!” Major Maksym Zhorin who is fighting now in eastern Ukraine, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Earlier on Saturday, a video issued by Zelenskiy’s office showed the Ukrainian president visiting Snake Island, a rocky outcrop on the Black Sea, to mark 500 days since Russia’s invasion.
The tiny island became a symbol of Ukrainian defiance on the war’s first day after Ukrainian guards famously refused to surrender to Russian forces. Mr Zelenskiy, wearing a black hoodie and camouflage bulletproof vest, laid flowers to honour those who defended the island, and thanked all the soldiers who have fought for Ukraine in the months since Russia’s February 24th, 2022 invasion.
“I want to thank – exactly from here, from this place of victory – each of our soldiers for these 500 days,” said Mr Zelenskiy, in a video posted on his Telegram channel.
“And may the freedom that all of our heroes of different times wanted for Ukraine, and which we have to win now, be a tribute to all those who gave their lives for Ukraine.”
The strategic island overlooks sea lanes to Odesa, Ukraine’s main Black Sea port.
In the first hours of the invasion, Russian officers on the Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva radioed Ukrainian guards on the barren outcrop, ordering them to surrender or die.
One of them radioed back “Russian warship, go f**k yourself.”
The phrase became a national slogan, depicted on Ukrainian billboards, T-shirts, and eventually a postage stamp.
On April 14th, 2022, two Ukrainian missiles struck the Moskva, the biggest warship sunk in combat for 40 years. Russia says one sailor was killed in an accident. Western experts say they believe around half of the crew of about 450 perished at sea.
On June 30th, Russia abandoned Snake Island after taking heavy losses trying to defend it. It called its withdrawal another “goodwill gesture”
“Although it is a small piece of land in the middle of our Black Sea, it is a great proof that Ukraine will regain every part of its territory,” Mr Zelenskiy said.
Meanwhile, Poland began moving over 1,000 troops to the east of the country on Saturday, the country’s defence minister said, amid rising concern in the Nato member that the presence of Wagner Group fighters in Belarus could lead to increased tension on its border.
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision to offer mercenary fighters of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group the choice of relocating to Belarus has led to fears among eastern Nato members that their presence will cause greater instability in the region.
“Over 1,000 soldiers and almost 200 units of equipment from the 12th and 17th Mechanized Brigades are starting to move to the east of the country,” Mariusz Blaszczak wrote on Twitter.
“This is a demonstration of our readiness to respond to attempts at destabilisation near the border of our country.”
Last Sunday Poland said it would send 500 police to shore up security at its border with Belarus.
Poland has seen an increase in the number of migrants trying to cross the Belarus border in recent weeks. According to the Border Guard, over 200 people tried to cross illegally on Friday, including citizens of Morocco, India and Ethiopia.
Poland has accused Belarus of artificially creating a migrant crisis on the border since 2021 by flying in people from the Middle East and Africa and attempting to push them across the frontier.
A senior Wagner commander was quoted as saying on Saturday that mercenaries from the group were preparing to move to Belarus.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023