Russia and Ukraine executed a substantial exchange of prisoners of war, marking the first such swap since the fatal crash of a Russian military plane.
Moscow asserted that the aircraft, which went down in the Belgorod region neighboring eastern Ukraine, was carrying 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported the return of 207 Ukrainian service members, while the Russian Defense Ministry stated that 195 Russian military personnel had been repatriated.
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Russia’s Initial Struggle in Crash: Lack of Proof
Initially, Russia was unable to present visual evidence supporting its assertions of casualties in the crash.
Subsequently, Ukraine asserted that its intelligence indicated the transportation of only five bodies from the crash site to a morgue in Belgorod, a count consistent with the number of crew members on the plane.
In response, several Ukrainian officials accused Russia of disseminating misleading information by falsely implying that Ukraine had inadvertently caused the deaths of numerous soldiers from its own ranks.
The group of 207 released soldiers did not encompass any of the 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war listed by Russian media as purportedly deceased in the IL-76 plane crash, as stated by Petro Yatsenko, a representative from Ukraine’s Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Kyiv Matches Russian POWs for Exchange
Last Friday, officials in Kyiv asserted that the names of the 65 prisoners of war (POWs) listed by Russia aligned with the POWs designated for repatriation to Ukraine in the planned exchange on the day of the crash.
However, Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s intelligence chief, stated that there is still no credible information regarding the individuals aboard the downed Russian plane.
Following Wednesday’s prisoner exchange, Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted that the IL-76 plane was brought down by a U.S. Patriot missile system.
Putin, in a meeting focused on his election campaign, declared, “The plane was shot down – this has already been established with certainty – by the American Patriot system.
This has already been established through examination,” and urged international authorities to conduct independent investigations.
Kyiv has not taken responsibility for the plane’s downing. While the Il-76 plane could have been within the range of a Patriot system near Ukraine’s northern border, Ukraine consistently affirms its commitment to not deploying Western-donated missiles beyond its internationally recognized territory.
Putin emphasized Russia’s continued commitment to prisoner exchanges despite the plane crash.