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What the last days of 2024 showed
Summary
A look back at a prisoner exchange and an airline's flight suspensions in the days before 2 January 2025.
What had the closing days of 2024 brought to Ukraine's security picture by 2 January 2025? Two developments stood out in the reports of the preceding days: a large exchange of prisoners of war and the fallout from an air disaster involving an Azerbaijani airliner.
A prisoner exchange
On 30 December 2024, Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. Ukraine said that many of those released by Russia were soldiers captured during the Siege of Mariupol in 2022.
The exchange took place against a grim backdrop. Prisoners of war on both sides in the war, which began in 2022, have suffered several forms of abuse, including mistreatment, exposure to public curiosity, torture and even execution.
Flights suspended after a crash
A few days earlier, on 27 December 2024, Azerbaijan Airlines suspended flights to seven cities in Russia. The decision followed the crash of Flight 8243 on Wednesday, 25 December, amid allegations that the plane had been hit by a Russian surface-to-air missile.
Together, the two stories marked the end of the year: one a negotiated release in which a Gulf state acted as broker, the other a suspension of air links to Russian cities after an incident that prompted serious allegations.
