Latest news with #prisonerofwar
Al Arabiya
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Russia and Ukraine exchange group of younger prisoners of war, Moscow says
Russia and Ukraine have carried out a prisoner of war exchange involving POWs under the age of 25, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Monday, saying the swap was the result of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine earlier this month. The June 2 Istanbul talks resulted in an agreement to conduct an exchange of at least 1,200 POWs on each side - focusing on the youngest and most severely wounded - and to repatriate thousands of bodies of those killed in the war. Both sides said it would be the biggest exchange once completed, something that was expected to happen in phases. The return of prisoners of war and the return of the bodies of the dead is one of the few things the two sides have been able to agree on, even as their broader negotiations have failed to get close to ending the war, now in its fourth year. The Russian Defense Ministry did not say in its statement how many POWs had been exchanged on Monday, but said both sides had swapped the same amount of military personnel. Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said at the weekend that a first list of 640 POWs had been handed to Ukraine. The Russian military said its returned servicemen were now in Belarus, a close Russian ally, where they were getting psychological and medical assistance before being transferred to Russia for further care. The Kremlin had said earlier on Monday that Russia was ready to honor agreements with Ukraine on the prisoner of war exchange and on the repatriation of dead soldiers despite what it said was Kyiv's failure to fully honor its side of the bargain.
Reuters
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Russia and Ukraine exchange group of younger prisoners of war, Moscow says
MOSCOW, June 9 (Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine have carried out a prisoner of war exchange involving POWs under the age of 25, Russia's Defence Ministry said on Monday, saying the swap was the result of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine earlier this month. The June 2 Istanbul talks resulted in an agreement to conduct an exchange of at least 1,200 POWs on each side - focusing on the youngest and most severely wounded - and to repatriate thousands of bodies of those killed in the war. Both sides said it would be the biggest exchange once completed, something that was expected to happen in phases. The return of prisoners of war and the return of the bodies of the dead is one of the few things the two sides have been able to agree on, even as their broader negotiations have failed to get close to ending the war, now in its fourth year. The Russian Defence Ministry did not say in its statement how many POWs had been exchanged on Monday, but said both sides had swapped the same amount of military personnel. Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said at the weekend that a first list of 640 POWs had been handed to Ukraine. The Russian military said its returned servicemen were now in Belarus, a close Russian ally, where they were getting psychological and medical assistance before being transferred to Russia for further care. The Kremlin had said earlier on Monday that Russia was ready to honour agreements with Ukraine on the prisoner of war exchange and on the repatriation of dead soldiers despite what it said was Kyiv's failure to fully honour its side of the bargain.
Reuters
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Kremlin says Russia is still ready for prisoner swap with Ukraine despite problems
MOSCOW, June 9 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia was still ready to honour agreements with Ukraine on a new prisoner of war exchange and on the repatriation of dead soldiers despite what it said was Kyiv's failure to so far honour its side of the bargain. Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of indefinitely postponing the exchanges, something Kyiv denied. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday repeated Russian accusations against Ukraine. "We have seen and heard a hundred different excuses, justifications and so on, but it is difficult to view them as credible," Peskov told reporters. "The Russian side remains ready to implement the agreements reached in Istanbul." The exchanges were agreed to during a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on June 2 and are meant to see a new prisoner of war swap of at least 1,200 POWs - focusing on the youngest and most severely wounded - as well as the repatriation of thousands of bodies of those killed in the war. The return of prisoners of war and the return of the bodies of the dead is one of the few things the two sides had been able to agree on, even as their broader negotiations have failed to get close to ending the war, now in its fourth year. Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said on Saturday that the Russian side had shown up at the agreed exchange point with the bodies of 1,212 Ukrainian dead soldiers only to find nobody from Ukraine to take them. He said a first list of 640 POWs had also been handed to Ukraine in order to begin the exchange. Ukrainian officials rejected those accusations and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed on Sunday to press on with prisoner exchanges despite tensions around the issue. He said though that Ukraine had not yet received a full list of prisoners to be released and accused Moscow of "trying to play some kind of dirty political and information game."
News.com.au
18-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
PM to meet Volodomyr Zelensky after Australian fighter Oscar Jenkins' ‘sham trial' in Russia
Anthony Albanese will talk about efforts to free Australian fighter Oscar Jenkins when he meets Ukraine's president in Rome on Sunday, a senior minister says. The Prime Minister and Volodymyr Zelensky are among numerous world leaders in the Italian capital for Pope Leo XIV's inauguration – a rare opportunity for the two men to meet face-to-face. The meeting comes after Russian authorities in Ukraine's occupied Luhansk region earlier this week sentenced Mr Jenkins to 13 years in a penal colony for allegedly fighting as a mercenary, complicating any prisoner swap talks. Ahead of the talks, cabinet minister Murray Watt slammed the trial as 'an appalling decision from Russia and another outrage in a long line of outrages'. 'We consider this to be a sham trial and we don't accept that Mr Jenkins should be treated this way,' Senator Watt told Sky News, echoing Foreign Minister Penny Wong. 'In our view, he should be treated as a prisoner of war. He was a member of Ukraine Defense Forces and prisoners of war are entitled to humane treatment under international humanitarian law. 'We'll continue advocating for his release and for his welfare and I'm sure Prime Minister Albanese will be taking that up with the Ukrainian President today.' Mr Jenkins was fighting with Ukraine's International Legion — a formal part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine — when he was captured late last year near Makiivka, a tiny village on the Zherebets River in Luhansk. Australian authorities confirmed the Melbourne man was alive just over a month later amid reports he had been killed — reports that several Ukrainian security and government sources told NewsWire at the time were unfounded. More than 20,000 people from all over the world have joined up with the Legion, which Russia has long sought to delegitimise by branding its members mercenaries. The same pro-Kremlin social media accounts that first started spreading Mr Jenkins' infamous interrogation video days after began sharing another clip showing dead soldiers stacked in the back of a truck. A voiceover says in Russian: 'That's what's going to happen to you. F***ing mercenaries. Australian f***ing mercenaries. We'll f***ing kill you all. You're all f***ing lying here. F***ing legion. You f***ing mercenaries. You're all going to f***ing die here.' Using reverse image search, NewsWire confirmed at the time the video was actually four years old and shows soldiers killed in the 2021 flare up between Armenia and Azerbaijan in disputed Nagorno-Karabakh. But the voiceover was new and notably aligned with Kremlin rhetoric that members of Ukraine's International Legion were mercenaries and therefore not protected by conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war. Speaking in Rome on Saturday, Mr Albanese accused Moscow of trying to evade its responsibilities under international law. 'We will continue to make representations and continue to advocate on behalf of Mr Jenkins,' he told reporters. 'Let's be very clear, this sentence by Russia is an outrage, it is a continuation of the way that they have behaved, abrogating their international responsibilities. 'This conflict began with them choosing to invade a sovereign nation and to abrogate their responsibility to uphold international law. 'And so we'll continue to advocate very strongly on behalf of Mr Jenkins and we don't believe that this is a legitimate decision by a legal process in Russia that is very politicised as we know.'
