Russia and Ukraine announced Wednesday that they had exchanged about 200 prisoners of war from each side, a week after the crash of a Russian military plane that Moscow said was carrying captive Ukrainian soldiers and was shot down by kyiv. Since then, the Ukrainian authorities and the West have been trying to obtain evidence on the Russian allegations, while Moscow has only published a few images of the alleged crash site and has limited itself to emphasizing that “an investigation is underway”.
207 Ukrainians return home
On Wednesday, despite persistent questions surrounding the crash of the Il-76 military plane, Moscow and kyiv indicated almost at the same time one of the largest exchanges of prisoners in two years of war. The Russian Defense Ministry said that “195 Russian soldiers” were exchanged for the same number of Ukrainian servicemen.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the return of “207” of his fellow citizens who were detained by the Russians. “Ours are at home,” he rejoiced on social networks, promising to bring home all the prisoners, “combatants or civilians”. This is the fiftieth exchange of this type, said Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Loubinets.
According to him, a total of 3,035 Ukrainians have already been able to return home. On Friday, kyiv also announced that it had repatriated the bodies of 77 deceased Ukrainian soldiers, a procedure planned “for a long time”.
Russia accuses Ukraine of shooting down one of its planes
Last week, a Russian military plane crashed near the Ukrainian border in murky circumstances, killing all on board. Since then, many questions remain unanswered. Russia assures that the Ukrainian army shot down the plane carrying 74 people, including, according to Moscow, 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were going to be exchanged.
The Russian Investigative Committee, in charge of the investigations, only published a few images showing a snow-covered field with some debris, and one or two blurred bodies, without AFP being able to confirm the location or verify the date of filming of these videos. Ukraine has not directly commented on its potential involvement in the incident, but has expressed doubts about the presence of its soldiers on board.
The country, however, confirmed that an exchange of prisoners was planned on the day of the crash, and ultimately did not take place. More than 8,000 Ukrainians, including more than 1,600 civilians, are still detained by the Russians, according to kyiv.