More than half of Azovstal defenders have already been released from Russian captivity – GUR

The deputy chairman of the coordination headquarters on the management of prisoners of war Andriy Yusov reported that 1279 Ukrainian servicemen who defended “Azovstal” were released from the Russian captivity, including 455 soldiers of the Azov Regiment.

Source: Yusov on the air of “Radio Liberty”

Details: According to Yusov, today it was possible to return 1279 from about 2,500 Ukrainian defenders who kept defense at Azovstal during the fighting for Mariupol in 2022.

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“This is, compared to other units, good dynamics,” – said the representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. However, he emphasized that “a person stands for every number, and no statistics will replace relatives for specific families.”

Yusov said that within the framework of the latest exchange in “1000 per 1000” format managed to release prisoners of war from 46 different units, whose representatives were not previously included in the lists.

Commenting on public statements about the absence of Azov fighters in the last exchange lists, Yusov stressed that excess media attention to individual names or units can be used by Russian special services for their own purposes.

“This is a painful topic for all, and any public statements must be weighed in order not to harm the captives themselves and not complicate their return,” he said.

Direct Language: “Our captives are in the hands of Putin. And the Russian services, which conduct exchange negotiations, exploit the information space to the detriment of Ukraine. The more references to the media about specific people or parts, the greater the likelihood that they will be used against us.”

Details: Yusov recalled that since the beginning of a full -scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 6 thousand citizens have been returned – both servicemen and civilians – within 65 exchanges. Among them are representatives of different units: the Armed Forces, Territorial Defense, Border Service and others.

Direct Language: “These are not people of the second grade are military personnel, these are defenders. Among them, there are few special forces, including Ukrainian intelligence officers, in which there is a separate big struggle. There are also few representatives of other difficult categories – convicted military, illegally imprisoned women, officers and combatants who are not fundamentally returned.”

Prehistory:

• On Friday, May 23, Ukraine and Russia held the first part of an agreement to exchange 1000 to 1000, in which 390 people were returned. Of these, 270 military and 120 civilians.
• On Saturday, another 307 Ukrainian defenders were returned from Russian captivity. They are all men of ordinary and sergeant.
• On May 25, Ukraine and Russia conducted a third part of the exchange in “1000 per 1000” format. Another 303 Ukrainian defenders returned home.
• Colonel Denis (Radis “) Prokopenko, commander of the National Grigade” Azov “, said that during a three -day exchange of prisoners with Russia, they did not exchanges any” Azov “, and did not believe that the authorities were interested in returning these fighters.
• The writer and former political prisoner of the Kremlin, Stanislav Aseev, reported that there were none of the civilians who have been in Russian captivity released in the format of 1000 to 1000.