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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Foreign Policy / War for Ukraine Day 875: 95 Ukrainian POWs Are Returning Home From Russian Captivity!

War for Ukraine Day 875: 95 Ukrainian POWs Are Returning Home From Russian Captivity!

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Quick housekeeping note: Nothing significant to report in regard to Rosie. She’s still doing very well in her week off between treatments. Thank you all for the good thoughts, kind words, prayers, and donations.

Nice to have some good news to start off with for a change.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier this evening. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

Today We Managed to Free Another 95 of Our People from Russian Captivity – Address by the President

17 July 2024 – 20:14

Dear Ukrainians!

Today is already the tenth anniversary of the day when the Russian occupiers destroyed a passenger plane in the Ukrainian skies – flight MH-17. A Malaysian Boeing with 298 people on board, including 80 children. Citizens of different countries, from various parts of the world. The Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Germany, Canada, Belgium, the Philippines, New Zealand. And over the time that has passed, it has been possible to fully establish the circumstances of this crime: how it became possible, who provided it. And there is no doubt that the trial and the work of international justice, in general, will inevitably lead to absolutely fair verdicts for everyone who is guilty of this crime. And that is exactly what is needed. No matter how much effort is required – there must be accountability for all those who brought this evil, as they are the evil themselves. And the same applies to the thousands of other Russian crimes of this war and this aggression itself – after all this, a lasting peace can only be based on a satisfied sense of justice for those who suffered from the aggression. And everyone in Ukraine who is working for justice, everyone in the world who is helping us, especially the Netherlands, which in many respects is a leader in the field of justice – I am grateful to everyone, to everyone who is putting the Russian evil in its place and helping us to prevent Moscow from feeling impunity. Bright and eternal memory to all those whose lives were taken by Russia!

Today, our team engaged in the search and exchange of Ukrainian prisoners managed to free another 95 of our people from Russian captivity. They are warriors from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and border guards. Most of the people in today’s exchange are privates and sergeants, seven are officers. Many of them have been seriously injured, one of the guys has cancer. Everyone will get the help they need. And it is important that, among these guys, there is one who was considered a missing person. We are looking into all the circumstances of each of our warriors, and it is a blessing when we manage to find those for whom we had the least hope. In total, we have managed to bring home 3,405 people from Russian captivity. We must bring them all back. We are doing our best to ensure this. I thank everyone in the world who is helping. I am grateful to the United Arab Emirates for mediating today’s release.

And a few other things.

We are working to make this week really productive in terms of relations with our partners. Today I held a meeting with the foreign policy team of the Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We need strong decisions from our partners that will allow us to put this war on a course to its just conclusion. And I thank everyone who shows appropriate leadership. Honest leadership.

I also signed a decree today that enacts the National Security and Defense Council’s decision on the new Maritime Security Strategy of Ukraine. This document takes into account the security changes and innovations that we have ensured, particularly in the Black Sea, in the development of our forces. This is a modern strategy, and we will implement it together with our partners. In the near future, I am going to discuss the details of this Strategy with them. With those who, like us, want stable security for their regions and for the entire world. I thank everyone who is helping! I also thank all employees of our state institutions, our warriors, our special services and all representatives of Ukrainian civil society who were involved in the preparation of the Strategy.

Glory to our people!

Glory to Ukraine!

Today is the 10th anniversary of Russia’s attack on MH17.

Today we commemorate. #MH17

10 years since the Russian downing of the MH17 flight over occupied Ukraine.

Acts of wickedness produce even more evil.

So, amid a filthy undeclared war in Ukraine’s Donbas, while arming and leading proxy armies against Ukraine and vehemently denying its involvement (that it boasts about as its ‘brilliant special operations’ now), amid typical Soviet-style mess and incompetence — the unmarked Russian military personnel and their “retired” proxy militants accidentally downed a Boeing full of innocent people from all around the world.

Not only did they boast about that (mistaking a civilian Boeing for a Ukrainian military aircraft), not only did they pose for pictures amid the debris, not only did they restrict access of international monitors to the crash scene.

What followed was genuinely the most shameless, outrageous, and heinous campaigns of lies, propaganda, and disinformation in modern history.

You all remember that kaleidoscope of the most idiotic “versions” thrown in by the Kremlin to create a wall of media white noise over the catastrophe — from lame photoshopped fake images of “a Ukrainian Su-25 downing the Boeing” to “air traffic controller Carlos” (who was later exposed as a wanted Spanish small-time fraudster paid by Russia Today) and to the “airplane full of dead bodies” purposefully crashed to compromise Russia.

Up to this day, Putin and his frauds continue juggling with all sorts of wild conspiracy theories possible over the MH-17 downing.

A never-ending torrent of dumb lies that fail to stand up to the simplest verification, again and again, for 10 years.

Everyone is to blame, from Ukraine to international air traffic regulations — but not Russia, which secretly brought a Buk-M1 surface-to-air system from Russia’s 53rd Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade to occupied Donbas to be used against Ukraine.

And of course, in July 2015, Russia vetoed the inception of an international tribunal at the UN Security Council — of course, it was because there was a global anti-Russian conspiracy in having a proper, internationally controlled investigation of the downing.

Yet, thanks to @bellingcat, the Joint Investigation Team, and the Dutch Safety Board, we know everything about what happened on that day in 2014.

We know in detail how the Buk was transported from Russia to occupied Donbas and who was doing it. We know who was using it and where exactly it was from.

We know how exactly it downed the MH-17, killing 298 people, and we know how Russians were hastily trying to get rid of incriminating evidence, particularly the very Buk-M1 system, after they realized what had just happened.

All facts, unlike the avalanches of Russian propaganda sprees, were carefully verified many times over by journalists and court investigators.

Pictures, phone calls, satellite images, reconstructed chains of events, technical expertise.

Yet, no one has been held responsible for the worst air crash of the 21st century.

The evil was never punished for inciting a regional proxy war and the downing of a civilian airliner.

Unpunished, it returned to unleash the worst European war of aggression since WWII, with hundreds of thousands dead and entire cities and regions turned into mass graves amid debris.

What will it do next as it stays unpunished again and again?

A solemn anniversary: Today marks 10 years since Russian forces shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 with a Buk missile as it flew over the battlefields of eastern Ukraine. All 298 people, and including 80 children, on board were killed. Only partial justice has been served, with 4 men convicted in absentia for their roles. At the time, those of us on the ground at the horrific crash site thought it could be a turning point in Russia’s then 3-month old war. Alas, it dragged on for years until exploding into the largest and deadliest war on European soil since WW2. There is still no end in sight.

Just to make it clear, Russia’s attack on flight MH17 was an act of war. An attack on a Dutch civilian target. Russia has been lying about its responsibility for a decade and the world has let it get away with this crime against humanity. Which is one of the major drivers behind Putin’s behavior. He probes and always finds mush. The one time he didn’t was in his attempt to take all of Ukraine in February 2022. If you want Putin’s behavior to change, and, as a result, Russia’s, then instead of constantly being rewarded for his acts of war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity he needs to instead be punished. Until or unless a state or an alliance of states powerful enough to do so imposes those punishments, he will continue on his current course.

Milwaukee on the Moskva:

Both Strelkov and Prigozhin said Russia launched the war against Ukraine. Strelkov said that without him, Ukrainian security forces would have taken control of occupied territories. Prigozhin went much further to say that the war was needed by oligarchs, that there was nothing extraordinary happening on 24 February that would trigger an invasion, and that the MoD was lying about NATO plans to invade Russia.

And yet David Sacks stands there in front of an audience saying Russia was provoked to invade.

Is he working in the interests of truth?

Useful idiot. Emphasis on the idiot.

Bucha:

Kharkiv Oblast:

Kharkiv Oblast knows no peace. On days when my reports are absent, it’s not because the attacks have ceased but because the fragments of information are too sparse to piece together. Yet, the relentless attacks continues unabated. Russian forces bombard the region daily, with dozens of aerial bombs reducing towns and villages to ruins. Even in silence, the devastation endures.

And remember, because of where in Russia these are launched from, Ukraine cannot either fire first to suppress the attacks or counter-fire against the strikes.

For want of a nail.

 

 

Somewhere in Russia:

Russian T-54/55 de-mothballed for war against Ukraine.

I keep trying to imagine the face expressions of the Soviet engineers who designed these things the 1940s and 1950s if we could tell them that their earliest nuclear warfare era tanks would be massively used against Ukraine in the 2020s.

Valdai, Russia:

Putin is afraid to vacation at his residence in Sochi.

Yesterday, he opened traffic on the Northern Tver Bypass. Putin came to the event from his residence in Valdai, where he will spend his summer vacation, sources of Russian Telegram channel VChK-OGPU report.

The reason is very prosaic – Putin has a panic fear for his life, and the Russian defense ministry is unable to provide security on the Black Sea coast.

Putin is trying to turn the Valdai residence into an impregnable fortress. It is stuffed with various air defense systems, including the S-400/300 division and the Pantsir-S1 air defense system. Also, the skies above the residence are guarded by Su-35s’ and even Mig31 from the military base of the Russian Air Force in Khotilovo.

Radio Svoboda has noticed the Pantsyr-S1air defense complex 3,7 kilometers from Putin’s residence – it is visible on satellite photos. The air defense system stands on a tower. Journalists think it was brought there in March 2024. They found no less than seven air defense complexes in total.

Russian Astra Telegram channel quotes its follower and writes that two more objects that are similar to air defense complexes are located about 3 kilometers from the same residence.

NEXTA Telegram channel has counted at least 7 Pantsyr-S1 air defense complexes, 11 S-300/400 air defense complexes, and early warning radar stations.

Those Pantsir and S300s and S400s are legit military targets. It would be fitting if someone eliminated them.

That’s enough for tonight.

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Who is the best kitty?

Myrnohrad, Ukraine.

On July 14, a Russian bomb partly ruined a 5-story residential building, killing three and injuring seven.

Minutes before the attack, the cat began meowing and calling his owner lady to come to the apartment room that soon ended up being safe in the attack.

So the cat unknowingly saved the owner’s life. He was scared but rescued intact, too, and returned to his hooman.

And a battle cat!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

15Comments

  2. 2.

    guachi

    Unrelated but important news nonetheless – Biden has COVID. Mild symptoms. I follow cycling and so many riders are out of the race with COVID I had to do a double take when I saw the news about Biden thinking it was just another cyclist out with COVID.

  6. 6.

    guachi

    @Adam L Silverman: Maybe not! I’d say 10% of riders in the Tour de France are out with COVID. It’s really bad.

    To tie this in with Russia/Ukraine the UCI (the body that runs cycling) Russian and Belorussian athletes don’t have their country or flag listed next to their names.

  10. 10.

    Jay

    @guachi:

    To tie this in with Russia/Ukraine the UCI (the body that runs cycling) Russian and Belorussian athletes don’t have their country or flag listed next to their names.

    Same gutless, pussy, money grubbing move as the IOC.

    Most ruZZian and beloruZZian athletes are either Military, military sponsored, or use Military facilities to train, and support ruZZia’s genocides.

    Meanwhile, Ukraine has had over 450 World Class athlete’s murdered by ruZZia’s illegal invasion and occupation since 2022 alone.

  11. 11.

    Gin & Tonic

    Glad for all the now-former POW’s, but my good friend R, MIA since May of 2022, is still MIA.

  12. 12.

    Jay

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I am guessing that ruZZia, (which is my polite term for them), does not inform the INRC of identified Ukrainian prisoners or dead, and the INRC does fuck all about it.

    I am sorry that you don’t know the status of your friend.

  14. 14.

    Bill Arnold

    Dmitri’s tweet has a reference to this in a German (business) publication as one of the replies. Just noting it.
    Russia opens Ukraine’s way into NATO (02.01.2005)
    google translate (Chrome):

    [Q:] Does the right to sovereignty for Georgia and Ukraine, for example, also mean that Russia would have nothing against their accession to the EU and NATO?
    [Lavrov:] That is their choice. We respect the right of every state – including our neighbors – to choose its partners and decide which organization it wants to join. We assume that they will decide for themselves how they want to develop their politics and economy and which partners and allies they want to rely on.

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