Chris Lange, FISM News

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Two U.S. veterans are among the more than 200 Ukrainians and foreigners released from Russian captivity on Wednesday in the largest prisoner swap to date in the seven-month war.

American military veterans Alex Drueke and Andy Huynh, both from Alabama, volunteered to fight with Ukraine’s military but were captured by Kremlin forces in Kharkiv Oblast in June and held in the Russian-separatist Donetsk People’s Republic. Both men were facing the death penalty prior to their release. 

“We are thrilled to announce that Alex and Andy are free,” Dianna Brown Shaw, Drueke’s aunt, said Wednesday in a statement posted on Twitter. 

Statement released by the Drueke family:
"We are thrilled to announce that Alex and Andy are free. They are safely in the custody of the US embassy in Saudi Arabia and after medical checks and debriefing they will return to the States.” pic.twitter.com/kJ334AroWS

— Mike Dubberly GDA (@MikeDubberlyGDA) September 21, 2022

The news follows months of complex and tense negotiations that were chiefly mediated by Saudi Arabia and also involved efforts by Turkey, the U.S., and the U.K., Axios reported.

In addition to Drueke and Huynh, five British nationals and 205 Mariupol defenders were exchanged for 55 Russian POWs and Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk. Putin is believed to be the godfather of Medvedchuk’s youngest daughter. The 68-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest in Ukraine days before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion but was captured again in April. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked Ukraine and Saudi Arabia for including the detained Americans in the negotiations in a statement announcing their release.

“The United States is appreciative of Ukraine including all prisoners of war, regardless of nationality, in its negotiations, and we look forward to these U.S. citizens being reunited with their families,” he said. “We also thank our Saudi partners for helping to spearhead this humanitarian initiative and facilitating the return of ten foreign nationals, including the two U.S. citizens greeted earlier today by our embassy team in Riyadh. I conveyed my gratitude to Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan in a call this morning.”

Blinken also took the opportunity to urge Americans not to travel to Ukraine and said any U.S. citizens currently in the country should “depart immediately.”

“Americans who travel to Ukraine to participate in the fighting there face significant risks and the United States cannot guarantee their safety. We encourage U.S. citizens to devote their energies towards the many other opportunities that exist to help the country of Ukraine and its people,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the prisoner swap on social media Thursday.

“We returned 215 people from Russian captivity: 188 defenders of #Azovstal and Mariupol. 108 Azov warriors, national guards, marines, border guards, policemen, territorial defense, Security Service employees. They’re safe now. We remember and try to save everyone,” he stated.

The Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry issued a statement crediting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with mediating the exchange, which also included prisoners from Morocco, Sweden, and Croatia.

“It is not a pity to give up Medvedchuk for real warriors,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video speech. “He has passed all the investigative actions provided by law. Ukraine has received from him everything necessary to establish the truth in the framework of criminal proceedings.”

Russia-Ukraine war takes center stage at U.N. General Assembly

President Zelenskyy told world leaders gathered at the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Wednesday that Ukraine will not yield an inch of territory to Russia but said his forces still need more military aid.

The videotaped speech came weeks after Ukraine began a powerful counteroffensive that resulted in the liberation of Russian-occupied territories in the northeast and a day after President Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s first military draft since World War 2.

“We can return the Ukrainian flag to our entire territory. We can do it with the force of arms, but we need time” Zelenskyy said in a speech delivered in English. 

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has so far dominated the gathering where world leaders, including President Biden, have offered impassioned speeches decrying Russia’s actions and in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty.

“This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state, plain and simple, and Ukraine’s right to exist as a people. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe, that should make your blood run cold,” he said during his address to the assembly on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. “If nations can pursue their imperial ambitions without consequences, then we put at risk everything this very institution stands for. Everything.”

In his speech, he also urged the members to strip Russia of its Security Council vote, which gives them the power of veto. Zelenskyy stated that the organization must be “insulated” from Russian influence “at least until aggression stops.”

1,000+ Russian citizens arrested 

Meanwhile, in the aftermath of Putin’s announcement of the new military mobilization, Russian citizens rushed to get flights out of the country to avoid the draft on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

More than 1,000 Russian citizens were also arrested at anti-war demonstrations that broke out across the country following the news – fresh evidence of growing antipathy for the war and the risk Putin has undertaken in ordering the conscription drive.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Ukrainian and Russian-installed officials in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Melitopol both announced that an explosion tore through a crowded market in the town overnight. Casualties, if any, have not yet been reported.

Russian forces fired nine missiles at the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, striking a power station and a hotel, according to regional governor Oleksandr Starukh, who said at least one person died and others remain trapped beneath the rubble.  Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia launched eight missile and 16 air strikes and fired 115 anti-aircraft missiles at military and civilian targets overnight in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk areas.

Russian-installed officials in Donetsk said at least six civilians were killed and six more injured in a Ukrainian missile strike on a market near the center of the city.

Russia has said it still plans to move ahead with the annexation of four separatist regions of Ukraine on Friday.