20:40, 4 January 2024

Chechen MP announces return of 248 military personnel from Ukrainian captivity

Military personnel who returned from Ukrainian captivity. Screenshot of the video posted on Shamsail Saraliev's Telegram channel on January 3, 2024 https://t.me/saraliev/1073

Shamsail Saraliev, a Russian State Duma member from Chechnya, has announced that 75 Russian military personnel have been returned from the Ukrainian captivity without exchange and 173 other prisoners of war have been returned through exchange. The military personnel have been returned from the Ukrainian captivity through the mediation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Russian Ministry of Defence reports.

In September 2022, Ramzan Kadyrov expressed his dissatisfaction with the exchange of prisoners of war (POWs), which was organized by the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the FSB. According to Ramzan Kadyrov’s assessment, the exchange took place on Ukrainian terms, and the leader of Chechnya and participants of the special military operation (SMO) were not consulted beforehand. However, already on November 5, 2022, Ramzan Kadyrov expressed his satisfaction with the return of another group of prisoners of war. Shamsail Saraliev participated in the negotiations that time, the leader of Chechnya noted.

The Russian Ministry of Defence has reported that a total of 248 Russian military personnel have been returned “as a result of a complex negotiation process.” “The return of the Russian military personnel from the captivity has become possible thanks to the mediation of the humanitarian nature of the UAE,” the Russian MoD reports in its official Telegram channel.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 3, 2024 at 08:04 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot