Zelenskyy brings home prisoners of war from Turkey, prompting Russia backlash

• Five Ukrainian soldiers returned from Turkey, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced. 
• Russia said Turkey violated an agreement for the soldiers to stay until the war’s end. 
• The comments came after Turkey’s Erdogan announced he would host Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy collected five previously imprisoned Azov battalion commanders in a recent trip to Turkey, prompting confusion from Russia, which accused Ankara of walking back an agreement to keep them until the war’s end.

In a Saturday video posted by Zelenskyy, commanding members of the battalion — a white nationalist paramilitary force within the Ukrainian National Guard — can be seen hugging the Ukrainian president before they board a plane. The commanders had been captured in the port city of Mariupol.

“We are returning home from Turkey and bringing our heroes home,” a post on Zelenskyy’s Twitter read.

According to Reuters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agency RIA that Turkey was supposed to keep the prisoners in the country, according to an agreement forged between Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey. The comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the country would host Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the exporting of Ukrainian grain during the war, per the outlet.

“No one informed us about this,” Peskov said, according to Reuters. “According to the agreements, these ringleaders were to remain on the territory of Turkey until the end of the conflict.”

Russian forces captured hundreds of Ukrainian fighters during the three-month bloody battle in Mariupol before troops surrendered in May 2022. Many of these troops who held the line by hiding in bunkers and tunnels under the Azovstal steel plant were Azov battalion members.

A prisoner swap organized with the help of Turkey and Saudi Arabia in September allowed hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers to return home. Zelenskyy announced part of the agreement included that five commanders of the Azov battalion who led the charge in Mariupol would remain in Turkey until the war concluded. Zelenskyy did not share what conditions changed that allowed him to take the commanders home.

As for the other Azov soldiers captured in Mariupol, 22 are currently facing trial in Russia after the country designated the battalion as a terrorist group. Human Rights Watch chastised the proceedings, saying the trial violated the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Spokespersons for Zelenskyy, Erdogan, and Putin did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.