Published: January 31, 2024 2:53 pm
Author: RT
The two countries have conducted a swap involving 195 soldiers, one week after Kiev’s forces downed a plane carrying 65 of their compatriots
Moscow will continue to exchange POWs with Ukraine despite last week’s incident which saw Kiev’s forces shoot down a Russian aircraft carrying Ukrainian soldiers for a prisoner swap, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
All 65 Ukrainian servicemen on board the Russian Il-76 military transport plane were killed in the crash last Wednesday, as well as the plane’s crew and three Russian military personnel.
“We will not stop the exchanges. We need to get our guys back,” Putin said at a campaign meeting for his reelection bid in the upcoming presidential vote in Russia.
Putin also said there are ten times more Ukrainian POWs than the number of Russian servicemen being held by Kiev.
“We have thousands [of Ukrainian POWs] and they have dozens or possibly hundreds [of Russian troops],” he told the meeting.
“We will take our guys back anyway if the Ukrainian side is ready,” the Russian leader said, adding that Kiev has signaled its readiness for such exchanges.
The Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft went down in Russia’s Belgorod Region on January 24. Moscow has accused Ukrainian forces of downing the aircraft with a surface-to-air missile. It has also claimed that Kiev’s military intelligence agency, the GUR, knew that Ukrainian POWs were aboard the plane.
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