On Wednesday, January 31, 207 Ukrainian POWs were returned to Ukraine from Russian captivity.
Prisoner Exchange on January 31: first details
The head of state, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has officially confirmed this information.
Ours is home back. 207 boys. We return in spite of everything. We remember everyone in captivity. Soldiers and civilians. We have to return everyone. We are working on it. It is another great work of the Ukrainian team. Budanov, Yermak, Usov, Malyuk, Klymenko - well done!
Exchange of prisoners between the Russian Federation and Ukraine
The Online.ua reported that, according to Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) speaker Andrii Yusov, the January 24 POWs exchange of prisoners disrupted by the Russian Il-76 aircraft crash in the Belgorod area was supposed to be one of the largest since the beginning of the war. Russia accuses Ukraine of shooting down the plane. However, the DIU reported that this is only a provocation and an informational attack by the Kremlin against Ukraine.
The DIU officers discovered that two top-rank Russian officials were supposed to fly on board the Il-76. Yusov officially confirmed that at the last moment, the FSB forbade them to board. He added that it is possible to find out exactly what caused the plane crash by studying the remains of the plane, "black boxes", and carefully examining the wreckage site. However, Russia refuses to grant access to the Ukrainian side.
Earlier, on January 3, 2024, 230 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians were returned from Russian captivity to Ukraine.
It was the largest exchange of prisoners of war since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Those who returned home were soldiers, sergeants, officers, soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Guard, the Navy, and border guards. Some of the defenders defended Mariupol and Azovstal, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Among them are 130 representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (including 14 members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 14 members of the Navy), 55 members of the National Guard, 38 members of the State Border Guard Service, one member of the National Police, and six civilians who were illegally deprived of liberty.
Among those returned were those who had the official status of prisoners of war, confirmed through the International Committee of the Red Cross (182 persons), as well as Ukrainian servicemen who were considered missing and had the status of "wanted person" (48).
Before the exchange, which took place on January 3, Russia had unilaterally suspended negotiations on exchanges from August 2023. The terrorist country delayed this process in every possible way, blaming Ukraine for it.
