Russia’s most powerful mercenary group, Wagner, on Sunday sent at least 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war back to the country’s forces to mark Orthodox Easter, according to a video posted by the organization’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin. .
“Prepare them all, feed and water them, check the wounded,” Prigozhin said in a video posted on Telegram by his press service.
A group of Ukrainian prisoners were then shown being told they would be returned to Ukrainian forces to mark Orthodox Easter.
“I hope they don’t fall into our hands,” an armed Wagner soldier told the men before they were ordered into a truck, some carrying bottles of water.
More than 100 men, some limping and others being carried on stretchers by their comrades, were seen walking in single file along a muddy road as a man standing in a tank held a white flag.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said 130 Ukrainian prisoners of war had been released and returned home in a “great Easter exchange”. It was unclear how many Russians were sent back to the other side.
Russia’s Wagner Group has been gradually driving Ukrainian forces out of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. The entity now claims control of most of the city, although Ukraine has repeatedly disputed claims that its forces were nearly driven out.
Prigozhin was shown greeting refugees in the city, including a young boy named Vladimir, before they were evacuated. People seemed to be sleeping in some kind of cramped underground cellar. Prigozhin handed out chocolate bars to the children.
Source: CNN Brasil
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