The commanders of the Azovstal defenders, who returned to Ukraine on July 8, are going to take part in the hostilities again. This was stated by the commander of the Azov regiment Denis Prokopenko at a meeting with journalists in Lviv, where the military arrived from Turkey together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I am deeply convinced that the army is teamwork, and from today we will continue the fight together, we will definitely say our word in battle. The most important thing is that the Ukrainian army has seized the strategic initiative on the front line and every day we are advancing forward,” Prokopenko said.
“We have returned and we will continue to do our job,” said Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of Azov, for his part.
The return of Azovstal defense commanders to their homeland in Mariupol became known on July 8. Five Ukrainian servicemen arrived on the same plane as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Istanbul.
In September, Azovstal’s defenders were exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian politician accused of collaborating with Moscow, and after that they lived in Istanbul. According to the terms of the deal, which was concluded with the participation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the five Ukrainian commanders were to remain in Turkey until the end of the war “in complete safety and comfortable conditions” after the exchange.
The blockade of Mariupol began in early March 2022 and lasted until mid-May, when the last defenders of the Azovstal plant withdrew from it as part of an agreement on a further exchange. On May 20, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the Azovstal plant in Mariupol had come under the control of Russian forces. The Russian military department said that a total of 2,439 Ukrainian soldiers who were on the territory of the plant “surrendered” in captivity. Subsequently, some of them were exchanged for Russian prisoners.
Source : CURRENTIME