Ukraine official says Ukraine, Russia swapped prisoners, including sailors

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian prisoners, including sailors and filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, are flying back to Ukraine after a prisoner swap was completed with Russia, according to comments that were reposted on Facebook by Ukraine's general prosecutor.

Neither the general prosecutor's spokesman nor Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's spokeswoman were immediately available for comment.

Russia had transferred Sentsov from a remote Arctic prison to custody in Moscow amid talks with Kiev on a possible prisoner swap, news agencies TASS and Interfax reported on Thursday.

A Ukrainian court also freed a senior Russian journalist accused of supporting pro-Russian separatists.

Securing a prisoner swap would be a win for Zelenskiy, who became president this year promising to bring an end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-presidents-office-says-no-prisoner-swap-with-russia-yet/ar-AAGwNGa?pfr=1

[Igel]

1. Russia will just kidnap more Ukrainians.

And resume bombardment of civilian areas in/near the Donbas.

Those dead in the Donbas are a statistic, unlike actual people in other politically fraught contexts.

The thing about Russia, seen from the archives, is simple. When they intervene militarily against a weaker opponent, they'll crush them and say how powerful the Red Army is. But when they think that there's a strong opponent, they back down because they don't want the civil unrest a protractor war or possible defeat. The archival records about aborted counter-Soviet revolutions in Eastern Europe showed this fear. But everybody was too terrified over a bloody nose that they allowed others' death and oppression, because, well, bloody noses might stain our clothes--when an actual commitment wouldn't have yielded a bloody nose at all, nor provided for death and oppression.

It's an ugly truth, but one that's fairly universal against bullies. In some cases, there's a fight, and the bully realizes he needs to stop. In most cases, the fight is perfunctory or merely threatened and the problem is over. On very, very rare occasions it leads to an actual fight. But Europe didn't learn its lesson against Nazi Germany, it didn't learn it against the USSR, it didn't learn it against Russia. And the US stands by, cheering on cowardice in the name of bravery, and sacrifice for the self in the name of self-sacrifice. Right up through 2015.

Notice Syria? Remember, the is no military solution. And yet, in spite of this obvious truth, the revolution's been rolled back considerably and it looks like there *is* a military solution. (This was obvious from the get-go, but only a RW mouthbreather would say so, or somebody false so called.) Then again, the next thing that comes up has pacifists and diplomats assuring us with the confidence that comes from never having been wrong, "There is no military solution." Gee, might the pacifists have a bias and might the diplomats want a job?