Ukraine has carried out the largest exchange of prisoners of war since the Russian invasion, securing the release of 144 of its soldiers, including 95 who took part in the defense of the besieged steelmakers in Mariupol, Ukraine’s military intelligence service said. The majority of Ukrainian detainees were seriously injured, suffering from gunshot wounds and fractures, blast injuries, burns, fractures and mutilated limbs, the agency known by the acronym GUR said in a statement to the Telegram on Wednesday. “This is the largest exchange since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion,” the intelligence service said. There has been no comment from Russia on the exchange of detainees. However, the head of the pro-Russian self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, Dennis Pushilin, said he had also secured the release of 144 soldiers, including its own fighters and those of the Russian army. “We handed over to Kyiv the same number of prisoners from Ukrainian armed units, most of whom were wounded,” he said. The Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal confirmed the exchange of views via Telegram, saying only that the work for the release of the detainees was “complicated”. Hundreds of more Ukrainians are believed to be still being held by Russia and its pro-separatist proxies in eastern Ukraine, but their exact whereabouts are unknown. In particular, Kyiv is worried about the fate of hundreds of fighters from the Azov regiment, which played a prominent role in the defense of Mariupol and the Azovstal steel industry before they were surrounded and eventually laid down their arms to Russian forces. The exchange of detainees included the surrender of 43 members of the Azov regiment, a unit of the National Guard that Russia says is a dangerous far-right battalion. Their release is a promising sign for Ukrainians hoping to free other fighters from the unit.
