Russian soldiers are the top priority for Moscow, according to Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman. The official made a statement after a major POW exchange between Moscow and Kiev.
The return of our soldiers and all the soldiers who fought and are fighting for the right to live of the people of the LPR and DPR is the main thing for us, Peskov told reporters.
The exchange, first announced by Ukraine's military intelligence service, took place on Wednesday. Moscow returned 144 captured Ukrainian soldiers in exchange for the same number of Russian servicemen, as well as fighters from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that it had been authorized by President Vladimir Putin. The exchange was organized and carried out on the direct orders of the Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces, said General Igor Konashenkov, Defense Ministry spokesman.
The most important task is to protect the lives, health, release of our servicemen, the fighters of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, who make up the majority of those returned, he stressed.
The exchange included 43 fighters of the notorious Azov regiment, according to Kiev. Hundreds of members of the neo-Nazi unit ended up in Russian custody after surrendering at the Azovstal plant in the port city of Mariupol. More than 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been captured during the conflict, according to the Russian military.
On February 24, Russia sent troops into Ukraine citing Kiev's failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocol, which was brokered by Germany and France, was first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has admitted that Kiev's main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and create powerful armed forces. In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was unprovoked.