Ukraine, Russia begin complex POW Exchange
He posted pictures online of Ukrainians 'returning home from Russian captivity'.
'Today, an exchange began, which will continue in several stages over the coming days,' Zelenskyy said.
Over the weekend, Russia accused Ukraine of delaying the prisoner swap that will also include an exchange of soldiers' bodies.
Ukraine, however, said there was no fixed date for the swap and that Russia was not adhering to the agreements about the exchange.
'The process is quite complex, with many sensitive details, and negotiations continue virtually every day,' Zelenskyy said on Monday.
Russian strike targets key airfield
Ukraine's Air Force has released more details about a large overnight Russian strike, confirming that a military airfield in the west of the country was among the main targets.
'The main strike was targeting… one of the operational airfields. There are some hits,' Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian TV, without elaborating on the extent of the damage.
According to Ukrainian regional authorities, the airfield is located in Dubno, approximately 60km (40 miles) from Ukraine's border with Poland.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike deep into Russia forced a temporary suspension of production at an electronics company in the Volga River region of Chuvashia, the head of the region said.
'This morning, Ukrainian attempts to use drones in Chuvashia were detected,' regional governor Oleg Nikolayev wrote on Telegram.
Moscow reported that debris from intercepted drones fell on the facility, while Ukraine stated there was a direct hit on the site.
The factory is 1,300km (800 miles) from the Ukraine-Russia border and, according to Kyiv, 'specialises in manufacturing navigation equipment used in attack drones, guided aerial bombs, and high-precision weapons'.
Russia slams NATO 'aggression'
The Kremlin has sharply criticised NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte's proposal to significantly boost the alliance's air and missile defence capabilities, calling the move 'confrontational'.
'(NATO) is not an instrument for maintaining stability and security on the continent. It is an instrument created for confrontation and has so far kept its true nature disguised. Now it is showing its real nature,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the proposal.
Peskov also warned that European citizens would bear the financial burden of the plan.
'European taxpayers will spend their money to defuse some threat that they say comes from our country, but it is nothing but an ephemeral threat,' he said.
His remarks come despite repeated threats from senior Russian officials toward NATO since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including warnings about nuclear strikes.
Poland scrambles jets
Poland scrambled warplanes on Monday to secure its airspace as Russia launched hundreds of drones at Ukraine.
'Due to the intensive air attack by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, Polish and allied aircraft began to operate in Polish airspace in the morning,' Warsaw's Operational Command said in a statement on Facebook.
Poland is one of Ukraine's closest allies and a member of NATO.
It has reported breaches of its airspace during previous Russian attacks.
In March 2024, Poland reported that a Russian cruise missile had violated its airspace and demanded an explanation from Moscow. A similar incident occurred in December 2023.
DW
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Observer
3 hours ago
- Observer
US, Russian space chiefs talk moon, ISS cooperation in rare Florida meeting
WASHINGTON: Nasa's new temporary administrator on Thursday held a rare face-to-face meeting in Florida with Russia's space agency chief, where they discussed cooperation on the moon and maintaining the space powers' longstanding relationship on the International Space Station, Roscosmos said. The talks between Sean Duffy and Dmitry Bakanov at the US space agency's Kennedy Space Center represented the first in-person meeting between the heads of Nasa and Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, since 2018. Nasa said late on Thursday the two chiefs "discuss continued cooperation and collaboration in space", without providing further details. The meeting coincided with an attempt to launch a joint astronaut crew from Florida to the ISS that was postponed due to weather. It was a significant moment for Washington's bifurcated space relations with Russia — especially for Duffy, an acting Nasa administrator who was assigned to the role just this month while also overseeing the Transportation Department. Roscosmos showed on Telegram a video of the meeting between Duffy and Bakanov, each flanked by staff and other events where Bakanov and his delegation can be seen mingling with US officials. The Russian space agency said "the parties discussed further work on the ISS, cooperation on lunar programmes, joint exploration of deep space, continued interaction on other space projects". Roscosmos and Nasa did not respond to questions about the nature of the lunar programme or deep space discussions. Such talks could signal thawing relations between the two countries' civil space programmes and represent a shift in global space relations. Russia had plans to participate in Nasa's flagship Artemis moon programme until it attacked Ukraine in February 2022. It became a partner on China's moon programme, the International Lunar Research Station, a direct rival to the US Artemis programme. The war in Ukraine has led to a vastly isolated Russian space programme, which has since boosted investments in military space efforts while nearly all of its joint space exploration projects with the West collapsed. The Russian delegation visited Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Wednesday and on Thursday was poised to watch the launch of Crew-11, a routine mission to the ISS featuring two US astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a Japanese astronaut. But bad weather pushed the launch to Friday, SpaceX said. While US-Russian tensions over the war in Ukraine have limited contact between Nasa and Roscosmos, they have continued to share astronaut flights and cooperate on the ISS, a 25-year-old totem of scientific diplomacy crucial to maintaining the two space powers' storied human spaceflight capabilities. Amity on the $100 billion ISS is buoyed primarily by a technical interdependency: the Russian segment relies on power generated by American solar panels, while the task of maintaining the station's altitude is assigned to Russia's thrusters. Multiple other countries depend on the ISS for microgravity research, prominently the European Space Agency, Canada and Japan. — Reuters
Observer
3 hours ago
- Observer
Putin signals no change in Russia's stance on Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow hoped for more peace talks with Ukraine but that the momentum of the war was in its favour, signalling no shift in his stance despite a looming sanctions deadline from Washington. US President Donald Trump has said he will impose new sanctions on Moscow and countries that buy its energy exports — of which the biggest are China and India — unless Russia moves by August 8 to end the three-and-a-half-year war. He has expressed mounting frustration with Putin, accusing him of "bullshit" and describing Russia's latest attacks on Ukraine as "disgusting". Putin, without referring to the Trump deadline, said three sessions of peace talks with Ukraine had yielded some positive results and Russia was expecting negotiations to continue. "As for any disappointments on the part of anyone, all disappointments arise from inflated expectations. This is a well-known general rule", he said. "But in order to approach the issue peacefully, it is necessary to conduct detailed conversations. And not in public, but this must be done calmly, in the quiet of the negotiation process". He said Russian troops were attacking Ukraine along the entire front line and that the momentum was in their favour, citing the announcement by his Defence Ministry on Thursday that Moscow's forces had captured the Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar after a 16-month battle. Ukraine denied that Chasiv Yar is under full Russian control. Ukraine for months has been urging an immediate ceasefire but Russia says it wants a final and durable settlement, not a pause. Since the peace talks began in Istanbul in May, it has conducted some of its heaviest air strikes of the war, especially on the capital Kyiv. The Ukrainian government has said the Russian negotiators do not have the mandate to take significant decisions and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on Putin to meet him for talks. "We understand who makes the decisions in Russia and who must end this war. The whole world understands this too", Zelenskyy said on Friday on X, reiterating his call for direct talks between him and Putin. "The United States has proposed this. Ukraine has supported it. What is needed is Russia's readiness". Russia says a leaders' meeting could only take place to set the seal on agreements reached by negotiators. Ukraine and its European allies have frequently said they do not believe Putin is really interested in peace and have accused him of stalling, which the Kremlin denies. — Reuters
Observer
a day ago
- Observer
Zelensky restores power of anti-graft agencies
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky restored the independence of Ukraine's two main anti-corruption agencies on Thursday, moving to defuse a political crisis that has shaken faith in his wartime leadership and worried Western partners. Thousands of protesters rallied in Kyiv and other cities in recent days in a rare show of discontent after lawmakers led by Zelensky's ruling party rushed through amendments last week defanging the respected agencies. Zelensky reversed course after the outcry, under pressure from top European officials, who warned that Ukraine was jeopardising its bid for EU membership by curbing the powers of its anti-graft authorities. He signed a new bill on Thursday shortly after lawmakers approved it 331 to 0, saying it "guarantees the absence of any kind of outside influence (or) interference". "Ukraine is a democracy — there are definitely no doubts," Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app. Thursday's law reverses amendments that had given his hand-picked general prosecutor the power to transfer cases away from the agencies and reassign prosecutors, a step critics alleged had been designed to protect his allies from prosecution. Eradicating graft and shoring up the rule of law are key requirements for Kyiv to join the EU, which Ukrainians see as critical to their future as they fend off a Russian invasion. Demonstrations had continued even after Zelensky submitted the new bill last week, with hundreds rallying near the presidential offices in Kyiv late on Wednesday chanting "Shame!" and "The people are the power!". Activists also rallied near parliament ahead of Thursday's vote to pressure lawmakers to approve the new measure. They burst into applause after it passed. Speaking at the rostrum before voting, opposition member Yaroslav Yurchyshyn thanked Ukrainians for stopping authorities "one step from the abyss" of autocracy. Some lawmakers appeared in parliament with hand-made placards mimicking those carried by protesters. Writing on X, EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos said Thursday's law "restores key safeguards, but challenges remain". The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) have stepped up a closely watched campaign against graft since Russia's February 2022 invasion. They have brought charges against lawmakers and senior government officials, including a then-deputy prime minister who was accused last month of taking a $345,000 kickback. Speaking to Reuters last Friday, after Zelensky's reversal, NABU chief Semen Kryvonos said he expected continued pressure on his agency from corrupt forces uninterested in cleaning up Ukraine. — Reuters
