The Azovstal defenders who returned from Turkey to Ukraine want to return to the front. In a press conference as soon as they arrived they said that “fighting for Ukraine again is “our main objective”
The five commanders have been greeted as heroes in Ukraine after leading a fierce three-month defense last year. of Mariupol from the Azovstal steel plant, in the largest city captured by Russia.
According to an agreement, they should have remained in Turkey until the end of the conflict, but Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky decided to bring them back earlier.“They fought for the good of Ukraine, they fought absolutely heroically. They went through Russian captivity. Then they were in Turkey for more than three hundred days. It’s time for them to be home,” Zelensky said.
Russia immediately denounced the release, claiming it violated the prisoner swap agreement signed last year.. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ankara had committed under the swap agreement to keep the men in Turkey and complained that Moscow had not been informed.
