Libya’s Ministry of Interior announced that a Libyan prisoner in Ukraine, Hatem Hamida Bakir was received from the Ukrainian-Polish border.
This was implemented, according to the prisoner exchange agreement signed between the Libyan and Ukrainian governments.
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior for Public Affairs, Major General Mahmoud Saeed was assigned the task of receiving Bakir. The committee headed by Saeed has successfully evacuated and repatriated all Libyan nationals present in Ukraine.
This came after a series of negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities in March.
In February, the Charge d’Affairs of the Libya Embassy to Ukraine, Adel Bin Issa announced that they had already started the evacuation process of some Libyan families and students. Especially those stranded in eastern Ukraine, next to the border crossing of Slovakia.
In March, the Libya National Army (LNA) denied allegations that it was sending Libyan mercenaries to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.
The LNA’s Director of Moral Guidance Department, Major General Khaled Mahjoub told Libya Update News that the army “has nothing to do whatsoever with the Ukrainian war. The LNA is preoccupied with combating terrorism, and the human smuggling fias in Libya, especially on the southern borders of the country.”
In May, the French news website, Mondafrique said that a new danger awaits Libya: the influx of arms from Ukraine. As the West continues to help Kyiv by sending it billions of dollars worth of defensive and offensive equipment.
The risk, according to current US officials and defence analysts, is that in the long term, some of these weapons will end up in unexpected places. Especially in the hands of other armies and militias, threatening to fuel the destabilization of Libya, and the Sahel region.