‘An Easter exchange’: 130 Ukrainian prisoners of war freed

World
By William

More than 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been released and returned home in a “big Easter exchange,” a senior Ukrainian official said, as Orthodox Ukrainians celebrated the holiday for the second time since Moscow unleashed its brutal full-scale war last February.

Sunday celebrations were subdued due to security concerns, with a curfew barring worshipers from usual nightly services. Yet Ukrainian authorities and ordinary people shared messages of hope, linking the story of Jesus’ resurrection to their desire for peace and Ukrainian victory.

Dozens of families had special reasons to rejoice as presidential adviser Andriy Yermak announced that 130 soldiers, sailors, border guards and others captured by Moscow were on their way home after a “major Easter prisoner exchange”.

Yermak said in a Telegram message that the troops released included those fighting near Bakhmut, the eastern mining town that has been the center of the Russian offensive for months.

“The lives of our people are of the highest value to us,” Yermak said, adding that Kiev’s goal was to recover all remaining POWs.

The prisoners appear to have been held by the powerful Russian mercenary group Wagner.

The group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, told the prisoners that they would be returned to the Ukrainian armed forces on the occasion of Orthodox Easter in a video posted to Telegram by his press service.

“I hope you don’t fall into our hands again,” an armed Wagner soldier was heard to say to the Ukrainian prisoners before they were summoned into a truck to load a few cartons of water bottles.

Some of the men were carried on stretchers by their comrades as they lined up a muddy road. A man was seen standing on a tank with a white flag.

Ukrainian and Russian forces have regularly exchanged prisoners since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

It was not clear how many Russians were turned back the other way.

The exchange was the second major prisoner exchange in the past week. On Monday, Russia and Ukraine said they had conducted a major prisoner swap, freeing 106 Russian prisoners of war in exchange for 100 Ukrainians.

Ukraine said on Friday it had also retrieved the bodies of 82 of its soldiers from Russian-controlled territory.

Zelenskyy and Putin deliver Easter speeches

In an Easter video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s all-out war “cannot erase us”.

“Believing in it unites us all. Always, but especially today – Easter, which has always been a family celebration for Ukrainians, a day of warmth, hope and great unity. The war could not erase us, our values, our traditions, our holidays and the most important things they symbolize,” Zelensky said.

Both the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which Kyiv says has ties to Russia, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OCU) held Easter services at the capital’s historic Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Monastery.

Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated Orthodox Easter by applauding the Church’s “strengthening” role for society and youth, while the country’s highest bishop supported the offensive in Ukraine.

“I want to express my deep gratitude for your tireless and selfless work in preserving the enduring historical, spiritual, moral and family values, by educating and enlightening the youth,” Putin said after participating in the liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. in Moscow.

Easter is the most important holiday on the Orthodox calendar in both Russia and Ukraine.

In the past, Russia’s highest bishop, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, has justified the country’s offensive in Ukraine by pointing out that Russians and Ukrainians are brothers who have been forcibly separated, especially by the West.

The Ukrainian government has countered that view by denouncing the Kremlin-led conflict and also continuing investigations and prosecutions targeting the church and priests deemed close to Moscow.

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