{"id":130663,"date":"2022-09-22T08:17:47","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T05:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/df.news\/?p=130663"},"modified":"2022-09-22T08:17:47","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T05:17:47","slug":"prisoner-swap-215-azovstal-defenders-released-from-russian-captivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/2022\/09\/22\/prisoner-swap-215-azovstal-defenders-released-from-russian-captivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Prisoner swap: 215 Azovstal defenders released from Russian captivity"},"content":{"rendered":"
A total of 215 defenders of Mariupol, who had been holding their defenses at the Azovstal steelworks, Ukraine\u2019s last stronghold in the area, were released from Russian captivity as a result of a massive swap effort.<\/div>\n
\n

That’s according to the Head of the President’s Office, Andriy\u00a0Yermak<\/a>, Ukrinform reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Volodymyr Zelensky set a clear task: to bring our heroes back home. The result: our heroes are free,\u201d Yermak wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a large exchange of prisoners. It passed through several stages and in different locations. We brought back 215 people from Russian captivity,\u201d the head of the president\u2019s office said. \u201cThese are soldiers, border guards, policemen, sailors, national guardsmen, territorial forces\u2019 troops, customs officers, and civilians. Among them are officers, commanders, Heroes of Ukraine, defenders of Azovstal, and pregnant military servicewomen,\u201d the statement says.<\/p>\n

It is those \u201cwhom the Russians wanted to kill, whom they called \u2018Nazis,\u2019 our strong people who were not broken by battles and captivity,\u201d including top commanders of the units which defended Mariupol.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the result of personal agreements between President Zelensky and President Erdogan,\u201d says the statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Russians wanted to blackmail us with their lives, but we won’t let them do that with anyone,\u201d Yermak stressed.<\/p>\n

Also among those released are 10 foreigners who fought for Ukraine and were threatened with death. They are already in the city of Riyadh.<\/p>\n

Andriy Yermak said 200 Ukrainians were swapped for Vladimir Putin\u2019s ally Viktor Medvedchuk, who has already provided all possible evidence to the inquiry.<\/p>\n

At the same time, five heroes, commanders of Azovstal defense, were swapped for 55 prisoners of war, \u201cwho are of no interest to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a difficult process. We have 215 people released \u2013 this is a significant result, which was due to correct tactics using a position of strength, including the results of the frontline efforts by the Armed Forces,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A total of 215 defenders of Mariupol, who had been holding their defenses at the Azovstal steelworks, Ukraine\u2019s last stronghold in the area, were released from Russian captivity as a result of a massive swap effort. That’s according to the Head of the President’s Office, Andriy\u00a0Yermak, Ukrinform reports. \u201cPresident Volodymyr Zelensky set a clear task: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"telegram_tosend":false,"telegram_tosend_message":"","telegram_tosend_target":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5142,5144],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-130663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-war-en"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/df.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/photo_2022-09-22_02-21-20.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}