Ukrainian President Zelenskyy wants to exchange prisoners from the Azov steelworks in Mariupol
© AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is ready to exchange prisoners from the Azov steel plant in Mariupol for Russian soldiers captured by Ukraine.
“We have to exchange them,” said Zelenskyj, according to the Ukrainian agency Interfax, during a video call to the Ukrainian house in Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum is currently taking place. The exchange is a political decision that depends on the support of many states.
More than 2,400 fighters from Azov Steel Plant surrendered
All UN members – especially those with experience in such matters – should step in. In the Mariupol steelworks in southern Ukraine, the last of more than 2,400 Ukrainian fighters surrendered on Friday evening after weeks of siege. As prisoners of war, they actually enjoy protection. There are also calls from the Russian side to bring them to justice. In Ukraine, a first Russian soldier was sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes on Monday. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
Despite the fall of Mariupol, an adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister sees the main military objective there as having been achieved. “The main objective was achieved in Mariupol. It was to hold back the Russian formations, (…) more than 20,000 Russian soldiers. And this was made possible thanks to the exploits of the defenders of Mariupol and the defenders who were later at the Azovstal plant “Yuriy Sak said on Tuesday in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”. As a result, the Russian troops would not have been able to conquer other areas in eastern Ukraine.
Zelenskyj wants to negotiate directly with Putin
When asked about a possible recapture of Crimea, which Russia had annexed since 2014, Zelenskyy replied in the video link that Davos would cost hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers their lives. He said he was only willing to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin if the end of the war was at stake. “Otherwise there is nothing to discuss.” Zelenskyy declined to meet with other representatives of the Russian side. In a country like Russia, the end of the war is only decided personally by the president.
Three civilians killed in Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine
Meanwhile, three civilians were killed in Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine on Monday, according to Ukrainian sources. Six other people were injured, the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, wrote on Telegram. In addition, the railway infrastructure was destroyed in the east of the country. Governor Valentyn Resnichenko said on his Telegram channel that four rocket hits in the Dnipropetrovsk region severely damaged tracks and overhead lines. So nobody was injured. It is not yet known when train services can be resumed. The Russian war of aggression on the neighboring country has now lasted three months.
The Ukrainian army said it had destroyed eight tanks, one drone, six aircraft and other military equipment on the Russian side. A Russian missile is said to have been shot down in the Novoukrainka region. The information could not be independently verified.
Russia wants to set up military bases in eastern Ukraine
According to Ukrainian information, Russia is expanding the command structures of the military police in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian general staff wrote on Monday evening that 19 so-called commander’s offices had been set up in the occupied regions of Cherson and Zaporizhia.
According to the Russian news agency RIA, the pro-Russian authorities in the occupied Kherson region have confirmed the project. “There should be a Russian military base in the Kherson region,” RIA quoted Kirill Stremousov as deputy head of the “regional civil-military administration”. “The entire population wants that. That’s important and will be a guarantee for the security of the region and its inhabitants.”