Ukraine’s Zelenskyy brings home Azovstal commanders from Turkey

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has returned home, from a visit to Turkey, with five commanders of Ukraine’s former garrison in Mariupol, a move Russia said violated the terms of a prisoner exchange deal engineered last year.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday that Ankara had promised under the exchange agreement to keep the men in Turkey and complained that Moscow had not been informed of the move.Zelenskyy on Saturday posted a one-minute video showing himself and other officials shaking hands and hugging the smiling commanders before they boarded a Czech aeroplane together.

“We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home,” said Zelenskyy, who met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks in Istanbul on Friday.

“Ukrainian soldiers Denys Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Serhiy Volynsky, Oleh Khomenko, Denys Shleha. They will finally be with their relatives,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.Kyiv had finally ordered the Ukrainian defenders, who held out for weeks in tunnels and bunkers under a steel plant, to surrender in May last year. Russia freed some of them in September last year in a prisoner swap brokered by Ankara under terms that required the commanders to remain in Turkey until the end of the war.

Zelenskyy gave no explanation for why the commanders were being allowed to return home now and there was no immediate comment from Turkey.

Many Ukrainians hailed the news on social media.

“Finally! The best news ever. Congratulations to our brothers!” Major Maksym Zhorin, who is fighting now in eastern Ukraine, said on Telegram.