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Prisoners of struggle return to UK, Russia following swap deal | Russia-Ukraine struggle Information

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5 British nationals reunited with their households in London as Moscow welcomes again 55 freed troops.

5 British prisoners of struggle have returned to the UK as a part of a prisoner trade between Russia and Ukraine, whereas 55 of Moscow’s personal troops re-entered Russia following the deal.

The 5 Britons – Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner, Dylan Healy, John Harding and Andrew Hill – have been reunited with their households after touchdown at London’s Heathrow Airport on Thursday.

Presidium Community, a non-profit organisation that does aid work in Ukraine, together with serving to with evacuations, mentioned it was happy the boys had been safely introduced dwelling.

“We all know that each one … [are] trying ahead to normality with their households after this horrific ordeal,” the organisation mentioned in a press release.

Aslin and Pinner have been captured by Russian-backed forces in Ukraine’s southeastern port metropolis of Mariupol in April and have been sentenced to loss of life by a courtroom within the self-proclaimed Donetsk Individuals’s Republic, a Russian-backed breakaway area in japanese Ukraine.

They, together with Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, have been discovered responsible of “mercenary actions and committing actions geared toward seizing energy and overthrowing the constitutional order of the DPR” – a sentence condemned by Ukraine and the UK.

Harding and Hill have been additionally captured whereas preventing alongside Ukrainian forces, whereas Healy was detained whereas volunteering as an assist employee in Ukraine. All three denied being mercenaries throughout a courtroom listening to within the DPR in August.

Paul Urey, a fellow UK nationwide who was captured alongside Healy in April, later died in detention.

Russia confirms troops’ return

The announcement of the Britons’ returns got here as Moscow confirmed that the handfuls of Russian troops freed beneath its cope with Kyiv had re-entered the nation.

“All servicemen have been delivered to the territory of the Russian Federation by navy transport plane and are in medical establishments of Russia’s defence ministry,” Russia’s defence ministry mentioned in a press release.

“They’re receiving the mandatory psychological and medical help,” it added, claiming the troopers had been “in mortal hazard” whereas being held prisoner.

The swap deal – the biggest trade of its type between Ukraine and Russia because the latter launched its full-scale invasion in late February – additionally noticed Moscow safe the discharge of Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician.

Medvedchuk, a private pal of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s, had headed a banned pro-Russian get together in Ukraine and was going through treason fees there.

In return for its launch of the 56 prisoners, Ukraine secured the return of 215 of its personal troops – together with a number of commanders who had led a protracted defence of Mariupol from Russia’s siege. It was not instantly clear if the entire troopers had made it again to Ukraine on the time of publication.

Additionally freed have been Saadoun, the Moroccan nationwide, two Individuals, a Croatian, and a Swedish nationwide.

The timing and measurement of the prisoner swap, which Turkey and Saudi Arabia helped to dealer, got here as a shock.

Earlier on Wednesday, Putin had ordered the mobilisation of as much as 300,000 of Russia’s reserve troops in an obvious escalation of Moscow’s offensive.

The Russian chief’s transfer got here after a string of latest battlefield setbacks for Russian forces, who have been just lately expelled from swaths of territory in northeastern Ukraine throughout a sweeping counteroffensive performed by Kyiv’s troops.

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