Azov commander Redis conveys a message from Turkey
Denys "Redis" Prokopenko, the commander of the Azov Regiment, urged to do everything possible and impossible for the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war [POWs].
Source: Kateryna, Denys Prokopenko's wife
Details: At the Ukrainska Pravda award ceremony, while receiving an award for public stance on behalf of the Azovstal Association of Defenders' Families, Kateryna Prokopenko read a letter she received from her husband in Turkey. As Kateryna states, "Redis" asked her to make it public on an important occasion.
In the letter, Prokopenko briefly mentions his time in captivity [information vacuum, threats of execution – ed.], notes how difficult the process of exchanging POWs is, and calls on everyone to do everything possible to free the Ukrainian prisoners of war who are still in the hands of the Russian invaders.
The letter also shows that the commanders of Azov still hope Ukraine will benefit after the war against the Russian invaders.
Quote: "Every day we follow the progress of our invincible army on television, we keep our fingers crossed for all those who are defending our state and are in captivity at this difficult moment. It is a great despair for us that we cannot now be near our counterparts on the front lines, and we hope that the war is not over for us and that we will be useful for our country.
The fight for Mariupol became a symbol of indomitability for Ukrainians, and a cancerous tumour for Russians, where for 86 days their command sent battalion after battalion in combat just to be slaughtered.
Thanks to the loyalty and bravery of the soldiers of the Mariupol garrison, whose locomotive was the Azov regiment, it was possible to pull away a large group of enemy forces in the south, thus slowing down the pressure in other directions and preventing the enemy from fully developing success on the other fronts.
On the nationwide scale, it [the defence of Azovstal steel plant] made it possible to regroup troops, receive the latest weapons from Western partners, mobilise new personnel, take over strategic initiatives along the entire contact zone, and conduct a number of successful counteroffensive operations."
Background:
On 21 September, as part of prisoner swap with the Russian occupiers, Ukraine succeeded in freeing 215 Ukrainian defenders.
Border guards, policemen, marines, national guardsmen, members of the territorial defence, customs officers, and civilians are also among those released. In particular, Denys "Redis" Prokopenko, Serhii "Volyna" Volynskyi, Svyatoslav Palamar, Denys Shleha, Oleh Khomenko – unit leaders of the defence of Azovstal [steel plant in Mariupol] are now safe. Also, Mykola "Frost" Kush and Kostyantyn "Fox" Nikitenko, whom the occupiers wanted to execute, were among the released Azov Regiment fighters.
The agreements foresee that five Ukrainian commanders are to remain in Turkey until the end of the war under personal guarantees of protection and safety granted by President Erdoğan of Turkey.
Viktor Medvedchuk and 55 Russian occupiers have been returned to Russia.
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