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Ukraine Announces Exchange of 215 Prisoners of War

A Ukrainian tank is in position during heavy fighting on the front line in Severodonetsk, the Luhansk region, Ukraine, June 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)
A Ukrainian tank is in position during heavy fighting on the front line in Severodonetsk, the Luhansk region, Ukraine, June 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)
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Ukraine Announces Exchange of 215 Prisoners of War

A Ukrainian tank is in position during heavy fighting on the front line in Severodonetsk, the Luhansk region, Ukraine, June 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)
A Ukrainian tank is in position during heavy fighting on the front line in Severodonetsk, the Luhansk region, Ukraine, June 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

Ukraine on Wednesday announced the exchange of a record-high 215 imprisoned soldiers with Russia, including fighters who led the defense of Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks that became an icon of Ukrainian resistance.

Russia received 55 prisoners including Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian lawmaker and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin accused of high treason, Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily address.

The swap was the biggest exchange between the warring sides since the start of Russia's invasion in February, AFP said.

"We have managed to liberate 215 people," Ukraine's presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak announced on television.

Zelensky said five military commanders including leaders of the defense of Azovstal were taken to Türkiye as part of an operation prepared well in advance and agreed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The released prisoners will remain in Türkiye "in total security and in comfortable conditions" until the end of the war, Zelensky added.

- 'Hugely welcome news' -
The Ukrainian forces' longstanding refusal to surrender at Azovstal despite shortages of ammunition and supplies earned them praise across the country for their heroism in defying overwhelming odds against Russia's superior numbers and firepower.

The prisoners of war comprised five British nationals, two Americans and one each from Morocco, Sweden and Croatia.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss said on Twitter that the release of the Britons was "hugely welcome news... ending months of uncertainty and suffering for them and their families".

Truss said they had been "held by Russian-backed proxies in eastern Ukraine".

MP Robert Jenrick on Twitter identified one of the British detainees as "my constituent" Aiden Aslin, who had been sentenced to death in June as an alleged mercenary after being captured by pro-Russian separatists.

Jenrick said the British detainees were "on their way back to the UK" and that Aslin's family "could finally be at peace".

"We look forward to our citizens being reunited with their families," US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Twitter.

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Twitter that the Swedish citizen, also held in Donetsk, "has now been exchanged and is well".

In Zagreb, the foreign ministry named the released Croat as Vjekoslav Prebeg, detained in April, and said he would return on Thursday.

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US Waving a ‘Carrot and Stick’ Policy at Iran

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)
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US Waving a ‘Carrot and Stick’ Policy at Iran

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave Iran a choice between focusing on itself and on trying to build a better country for its people, or bear the consequences of continuing its engagement in what he called “misadventures” throughout the region and beyond.
During a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, the outgoing Secretary of State reflected on the carrot-and-stick policy that the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump could adopt towards Iran.
He said there is a prospect of negotiations with Tehran to reach a new nuclear deal. However, he urged the policy of continued pressure on Iranian authorities to stop their nuclear policies in the Middle East.
Asked about the possibility of Iran accelerating its nuclear program in light of its failures in various parts of the Middle East, notably after Tehran lost its primary proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon and after the fall of the regime of its ally Assad, Blinken said “There’s no doubt this has not been a good year for Iran.”
He noted that Iran has to make some fundamental choices.
One choice, Blinken said, “is to focus on itself and focus on trying to build a better, more successful country that delivers for its people, which is clearly what most Iranians want, and to stop getting involved in these adventures – or misadventures – throughout the region and beyond.”
The outgoing Secretary of State also affirmed that Iran desperately needs to be focused on its economy, on growing the country, and delivering for people.
If they don’t make that choice, he said, “they have some hard decisions to make, yes, about where they’re going to go in the future to be able to sustain the kind of troublemaking that, unfortunately, they’ve been engaged in for many, many years.”
Blinken said he doesn’t think that a nuclear weapon is inevitable.
“I think this is something that may be more a question now because as they’ve lost different tools, as they’ve lost different lines of defense, sure, you’re going to see more thinking about that.”
He warned the costs and consequences to Iran for pursuing that route would be severe. “So I am hopeful that that remains in check,” he said.
Blinken then reiterated the position of President Joe Biden’s administration, saying that the so-called JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, was capable to take off the prospect of Iran getting to a nuclear weapon anytime soon by bottling up, tying up the fissile material, making sure their breakout time in producing enough fissile material for a bomb was pushed back beyond a year.
He said now that breakout time in terms of the production of fissile material is a matter of a week or two.
“They don’t have a weapon, and the weaponization piece would take them some time,” he added.
The Secretary of State then called on the next administration to find a way to engage this, because the production of 60 percent enriched uranium gives them the capacity, at least in terms of fissile material, to produce multiple weapons’ worth of material in very short order.
Asked about the prospect of a negotiation of a new nuclear deal with Iran, Blinken said there is the prospect of negotiations.
“Of course, it depends on what Iran chooses to do and whether it chooses to engage in meaningfully,” he said. “And of course, the incoming administration will have to make a decision.”
He recalled how President Trump last time around pulled out of the deal, and wanted, as he called it, a better, stronger deal. “Fine. Let’s see what’s possible,” Blinken said.
He then revealed that from administration to administration, whether it’s the Biden, the Trump or the Obama administration, there’s been a shared determination and a shared determination that remains to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.
Huge Opportunity
Blinken’s comments came shortly after White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that Iran is at its “weakest point in decades,” after the fracturing of the Axis of Resistance.
The advisor also spoke about the huge opportunity” to advance regional integration.
At an event in New York, he said recent events in the Middle East — including the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the toppling of Bashar Assad in Syria — present a “huge opportunity” to advance regional integration.
When asked about efforts to normalize ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Sullivan affirmed that Saudi leaders have already said in recent months that a deal cannot move forward without a commitment by Israel to the creation of a Palestinian state.