Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, left Turkey this Saturday with five generals who have been protesting for weeks against the Russian siege of the Azovstal steelworks, which has been seized by Moscow forces.
“We are returning from Turkey and bringing home our heroes,” Zelensky said in a Twitter message that coincided with the 500th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The five Azov Brigade commanders have been in Turkey since September 2022 under the protection of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who negotiated their release in a prisoner exchange with Russia.
Erdogan’s mediation allowed the release of 215 Ukrainian soldiers in exchange for 55 Russians and Ukrainians linked to the Kremlin, including Viktor Medvetsu, a Ukrainian oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky’s statements were accompanied by a video showing him greeting five soldiers before boarding a Czech government plane, which the Ukrainian leader has used on his travels in recent days.
Russia captured about 2,500 Ukrainian troops at the Mariupol steelworks in May 2022 and still has about 1,900 Ukrainian troops.
Despite their surrender, weeks of resistance by these soldiers became a symbol of the bloody war in Ukraine, which reduced the city to rubble during the fighting in Bakhmut, Donetsk (eastern) province. ), which lasted from August last year.
Before his departure, Zelensky had time to participate in a religious ceremony with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople in memory of the Ukrainians killed by the Russian occupation.
The Ukrainian leader thanked Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians around the world, for his support and condemnation of Russia’s aggression.
He prayed for a ceasefire and restoration of peace in Ukraine and reiterated his request to the Russian government to return Ukrainian children transferred to Russia, Anadolu news agency reported.
On Friday, in Istanbul, Volodymyr Zelensky thanked his Turkish counterpart for the support shown to the country’s bid to join NATO.
“I was pleased to hear that the president said that Ukraine is eligible for membership in NATO,” Zelensky said at a joint press conference with Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
After a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart earlier that day, Erdogan said Ukraine “deserves to join NATO.”
Zelensky ended a trip that took him to Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey starting Thursday.
The visits come just ahead of a NATO summit on July 11 and 12 in Vilnius, Lithuania, where Ukraine’s aspirations to join the Atlantic alliance and Russian aggression will be at the center of discussions.
Today, Ukraine’s president saluted the country’s soldiers in a video from an island in the Black Sea to mark 500 days of the war, which has also become a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion.
Speaking on Snake Island, Zelenskiy honored the Ukrainian soldiers who fought to defend it and all other defenders of the country, saying that regaining control of the island was “the best proof that Ukraine will regain every part of its territory.”
“I want to thank each and every one of our soldiers for these 500 days – from here, from this place of victory,” Zelensky said. “Thank you to everyone fighting for Ukraine,” he added.
Russian forces seized control of the tiny rocky island on February 24, 2022, the day Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, hoping to use it as a base for an attack on Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port in the south. .
The island became famous for Ukrainian resistance to Russian invasion when Ukrainian troops were ordered by a Russian ship to surrender or be bombed. The Ukrainian military’s radio response was “Fuck off…”.
“Hardcore explorer. Extreme communicator. Professional writer. General music practitioner. Prone to fits of apathy.”