Ukrainian ambassador: Türkiye returned Azov commanders without any conditions PHOTO

The Ukrainian ambassador to Türkiye, Vasyl Bodnar, has said that the Turkish authorities were interested in returning the commanders of the Azov battalion who were defending the Azovstal plant in Mariupol to Ukraine.

According to Kommersant, the ambassador said that they did not put forward any conditions for their transfer.

"In fact, any conditions that I would be aware of for the return of our servicemen have not been put forward. On the contrary, this is precisely the peculiarity of this position of the Turkish side as a mediator, providing so-called good services in order for the process itself to continue... But this is also a toughening of Türkiye's position in communication with the Russian side," the Ukrainian ambassador to Türkiye said on the air of the Ukrainian edition of Radio Liberty.

On July 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the return of five Azov commanders after a trip to Türkiye. According to the Ukrainian ambassador to Türkiye, preparations for the return had been under way for several months. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke several times with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in person and by phone. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it a "violation of the agreements on the exchange of prisoners" and said that the Russian side had not been warned about the forthcoming transfer of the Azov commanders.

We shall remind you that five Azov commanders who were defending Azovstal were sent to Türkiye as part of a prisoner exchange in September 2022.