Ukraine on Wednesday announced it has secured the release of 144 of its captive soldiers — including 95 defenders of the doomed Azovstal steel plant — as part of the largest prisoner exchange since the start of the war.
Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, known as GUR, shared the news on its Telegram channel, revealing that 43 of the freed soldiers are members of the Azov regiment — a national guard unit that Russia claims is a nationalistic far-right battalion.
The majority of the freed Ukrainian service members — ranging in age from 19 to 65 — were badly wounded, suffering from gunshot and shrapnel wounds, blast trauma, burns, fractured bones and amputated limbs, the agency stated.
“All of them are receiving the appropriate urgent medical and psychosocial help,” GUR wrote.
There was no comment from the Kremlin about the large-scale prisoner swap.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency reported that most of the liberated soldiers are badly wounded. REUTERS
Forty-three of the freed soldiers are members of the Azov regiment — a national guard unit that Russia claims is a nationalistic far-right battalion. REUTERS/Chingis Kondarov 
The service members’ injuries include gunshot and shrapnel wounds, blast trauma, burns, fractured bones and amputated limbs. Russian Defence Ministry/AFP viaBut the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine said it had secured the release of 144 soldiers, including its 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,” Denis Pushilin wrote on his Telegram channel. “I wish them a speedy recovery.”
Hundreds more Ukrainian fighters are still thought to be held captive by Russia and its pro-Moscow separatist proxies in eastern Ukraine, but their precise whereabouts are not known.
Forty-three of the soldiers liberated as part of a prisoner swap are members of the Azov regiment, which defended the Azovstal plant in Mariupol until it fell to the enemy. REUTERS
Hundreds more Ukrainian fighters are still thought to be held captive. Russian Defence Ministry/AFP via
Ninety-five of the released captives were defenders of the doomed Azovstal steel plant. Dmytro Kozatski/Azov Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard Press Office via APIn particular, Kyiv has worried over the fate of hundreds of fighters from the Azov regiment that played a prominent role in the months-long defense of Mariupol and its Azovstal steelworks before being encircled and eventually laying down their arms.
With Post wires
