Exchange of prisoners: 95 defenders "Azovstal" were returned to Ukraine:

The return of the wounded Ukrainian fighters. Photo: GUR MO Ukraine

On Wednesday, the largest exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine from the beginning of a full -scale war took place. According to the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, 144 Ukrainian fighters were returned to their homeland, among them 95 defenders "Azovstal", of which 43 are Azov fighters.

59 fighters of the National Guard, 30 - naval forces, 28 - the Armed Forces, 17 - the State Border Service, 9 - territorial defense, one employee of the national police.

Among the exchanged - 23 officers and 69 servicemen of sergeant and foreman. The eldest of them is 65 years old, the youngest is 19.

Most of the fighters transferred to Ukraine are injured: gunshot and fragmentation wounds, injuries from explosions, burns, fractures, some have limbs. "All of them receive proper urgent medical and psychological assistance," Gur says.

"The head of the DPR" Denis Pushilin confirmed that the exchange was held according to the formula "144 by 144". According to Pushilin, several of the liberated Ukrainians are "ordinary nationalist battalions, their deplorable state: the injuries are severe, with amputation of the limbs and other complications." The "head of the DPR" noted that very valuable militants were returned to the Republic, most of them are also injured and need urgent medical care.

The day before, the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, during the St. Petersburg Youth Law Forum, said that it was decided not to exchange the Ukrainian military in Russian captivity. “I thought how to punish them - now we feed them from a spoon and treat them. Firstly, we decided not to give them out, they agreed where it was supposed to. And then they thought:“ We’ll also give up to families. ”No, in temporary detentional insulators, in the pre -trial detention center,” he said. “Now 2 thousand such fighters who have arrived yesterday. We work with them in detail and thoroughly.”

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Russia for the third time postponed a meeting on the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office on the recognition of the Azov regiment with a terrorist organization - this time until August 2. Initially, the hearings were supposed to be held on May 26, and then they were postponed to June 29.

The Ukrainian military who defended the Azovstal plant - the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol - surrendered to the Russian military and militants of the "DPR" on May 16-20. According to the president of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, 2500 Ukrainians were captured in total. Initially, some of them were sent to hospitals in Novoazovsk and in Donetsk, and the majority to the colony in the village of Eleenovka near Donetsk. Later there were reports that at least part of the prisoners was taken to Russia.

The Ukrainian authorities called the military output with Azovstali evacuation and stated that they hoped to exchange them. The State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin spoke for the adoption by the Nizhnaya Chamber prohibiting the exchange of "Nazi criminals." The head of the LDPR faction in the State Duma Leonid Slutsky proposed to discuss the abolition of a moratorium on the death penalty in Russia - in his opinion, the "Ukrainian nationalists" deserve such a punishment.