Zelensky accompanies Azovstal commanders back to Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelensky greeted five Azovstal commanders in Turkey before accompanying them home to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president posted an image of the soldiers and himself aboard a plane writing on Facebook: “We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home.

“Ukrainian soldiers Denys Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Serhii Volynskyi, Oleg Khomenko, and Denys Shlega will finally be with their families.”

The men are reported to have been the five commanders during the “siege of the Azovstal plant” in Mariupol.

In September 2022, Zelensky had said the men would remain under the personal protection of the President of Turkey until the end of the war.

The soldier's return to Ukraine is a highly symbolic achievement that Russia immediately denounced the release and said violated a prisoner exchange deal engineered last year.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ankara had promised under the exchange agreement to keep the men in Turkey and complained Moscow had not been informed.