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Military operation in Ukraine

Ukraine receives 37 members of nationalist battalions in prisoner swap, DPR head says

According to Denis Pushilin, the swap included those with no evidence from eye-witnesses or their fellow servicemen that they had committed the crimes

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/. Thirty-seven members of Ukrainian nationalist battalions uninvolved in war crimes were handed over to Ukraine in a swap of prisoners-of-war (POWs), Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin said on Friday.

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Russian Defense Ministry reports prisoner swap with Ukraine

"We have representatives of nationalist battalions. This swap included those with no evidence from eye-witnesses or their fellow servicemen that they had committed the crimes incompatible with the logic of the exchange. Yes, 37 such servicemen were included in this list of 144. This was a required and forced condition and we also set terms in this swap. For Ukraine, this is a hyped event as it is important for them to get at least someone [from nationalist battalions] out of captivity," Pushilin said in a live broadcast on Television Channel One.

Only those members of nationalist battalions were handed over to the Ukrainian side who surely won’t be able to fight again owing to severe injuries they had received in combat, Pushilin said.

"Those representatives of nationalist battalions who will be unable to join the troops due to bodily injuries. These are those who have no arms, legs and have injuries incompatible with the normal way of life to say nothing about the fact that they won’t be able to join the troops," he said.

The Ukrainian servicemen charged with committing war crimes are not swapped, Pushilin stressed.

"A detailed and thorough probe into all participants in Ukrainian armed formations is being carried out. Those who have now been pressed with charges and transferred to the category of persons kept in custody in another place are not subject to the prisoner swap," the DPR head said.

The Ukrainian authorities handed over 49 militia fighters to the Donetsk People’s Republic in the prisoner swap, Pushilin said.

"Yesterday, we talked about 47 of our boys from the DPR but we found two more boys as part of this swap of 144. The latter two were not immediately handed over to us but now there are already 49 boys from the DPR and most of them are mobilized servicemen," Pushilin said, stressing that 95% of them had been tortured in captivity.

DPR Head Pushilin announced on June 29 that the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Kiev regime had carried out a POW swap, with each side returning 144 fighters, in the first exchange of captives between the DPR and Ukraine since the beginning of the special military operation. He added that the captured Ukrainian POWs handed over to the Kiev regime included privates of nationalist battalions who were in a poor health condition.

As Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on June 30, the prisoner swap was implemented on an instruction from Russia’s supreme commander-in-chief.

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