President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced the release of five military commanders who defended Azovstal in Mariupol. Judging by the video posted on Zelensky’s Telegram channel, he took them from Turkey, where the servicemen were to be under house arrest from September 2022 until the end of the war, in agreement with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In Istanbul, Zelensky held talks with Erdogan.
According to the Ukrainian leader, Denis Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Sergei Volynsky, Oleg Khomenko and Denis Shlega have been released.
“We are returning home from Turkey and returning our heroes,” Zelensky wrote and posted a video with servicemen from the plane:
In May 2022, 2.5 thousand Ukrainian soldiers defending Azovstal surrendered . On June 7, TASS reported that more than a thousand of them were sent to Russia for investigation. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky expressed the hope that their lives could be saved: “Thanks to the actions of the Ukrainian military Armed Forces of Ukraine, intelligence, as well as the negotiating group, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN, we have hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys. I want to emphasize that Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive. This is our principle. I think that every adequate person will understand these words.