Global Courant
Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could simply reject Vladimir Putin.
After ending talks with Erdogan during a visit to Istanbul, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky returned home with five Azov commanders, who had initially been captured by Moscow during a months of battle to defend the port city of Mariupol.
The commanders were released in September in a prison exchange supervised by Ankara, but only on the condition that they remain in Turkey until the end of the war.
Zelensky posted a video of him shaking hands and hugging the soldiers, greeting them as “heroes” and celebrating that “they will finally be with their relatives,” according to Zelensky. Al Jazeera. The chairman too tweeted on Saturday a photo with the commanders with the caption “Home “.
A Kremlin spokesman denounced the return of the soldiers and accused Turkey of violating their original agreement.
“Nobody informed us about this. According to the agreements, these ringleaders would remain on the territory of Turkey until the end of the conflict,” said Dmitry Peskov. DW News reported. Zelensky did not elaborate on why the commanders were able to come home.
The defenders – Denys Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Serhiy Volynsky, Oleh Khomenko and Denys Shleha – were among hundreds of fighters ordered to surrender to Russian besiegers in Mariupol in May 2022. For the Kremlin, the port city represented a crucial part of its plans for a land bridge between southern Russia and occupied Crimea.
Turkey’s decision to hand over Azov’s commanders comes as Erdogan announced that he will receive Putin next month hoping to renew a deal to allow the use of the Black Sea for the export of grain from Ukrainian ports.
While Erdogan recently said that Ukraine “unquestionably deserves NATO membership”, the Turkish president has emphasized that he believes in the need for Kiev to enter into peace talks with Moscow.
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