logo
Russia still ready for Ukraine prisoner swap: Kremlin

Russia still ready for Ukraine prisoner swap: Kremlin

Perth Nowa day ago

The Kremlin says Russia is still ready to honour agreements with Ukraine on a new prisoner of war exchange and the repatriation of dead soldiers despite what it calls Kyiv's failure to honour its side of the bargain.
Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of indefinitely postponing the exchanges, something Kyiv denied.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated Russian accusations against Ukraine on Monday.
"We have seen and heard a hundred different excuses, justifications and so on, but it is difficult to view them as credible," Peskov told reporters.
"The Russian side remains ready to implement the agreements reached in Istanbul."
The exchanges were agreed to during a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on June 2 and are meant to see a new prisoner of war swap of at least 1200 POWs - focusing on the youngest and most severely wounded - as well as the repatriation of thousands of bodies of those killed in the war.
The return of prisoners of war and the return of the bodies of the dead is one of the few things the two sides have been able to agree on, even as their broader negotiations have failed to get close to ending the war, now in its fourth year.
Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said on Saturday the Russian side had shown up at the agreed exchange point with the bodies of 1212 Ukrainian dead soldiers, only to find nobody from Ukraine to take them.
He said a first list of 640 POWs had also been handed to Ukraine to begin the exchange.
Ukrainian officials rejected those accusations and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed on Sunday to press on with prisoner exchanges despite tensions around the issue.
He said though that Ukraine had not yet received a full list of prisoners to be released and accused Moscow of "trying to play some kind of dirty political and information game".

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

More money to Moscow than Kyiv: Australia buying billions in fuel using Russian crude despite sanctions against Kremlin
More money to Moscow than Kyiv: Australia buying billions in fuel using Russian crude despite sanctions against Kremlin

Sky News AU

time3 hours ago

  • Sky News AU

More money to Moscow than Kyiv: Australia buying billions in fuel using Russian crude despite sanctions against Kremlin

Australia's dependence on imported oil—much of it refined from Russian crude—has handed the Kremlin billions of dollars in tax revenue from exporters, according to new research. While Australia has proudly pledged $1.5 billion in aid to support Ukraine against Russia's invasion, a new report found the country has funnelled even more money to the Kremlin. Data from the Europe-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) estimated Australia has imported more than AU$3.7 billion worth of oil products derived from Russian crude. The oil is refined overseas—including at the Jamnagar Refinery in India, which has not sanctioned Russian crude—before being legally imported into the Australian market. This would have handed Russian President Vladimir Putin about AU$1.8 billion in tax revenue, according CREA. CREA's EU Russia Analyst Vaibhav Raghunandan called it 'a significant failing of Western sanctions', exposing a glaring loophole that lets Russia bypass restrictions. 'Refineries in non-sanctioning countries buying Russian oil are… taking comfort in the knowledge that they will face no action from Western countries,' he said. Mr Raghunandan said countries like Australia 'look away and continue to import refined products', indirectly funding Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) warned this 'policy blind spot' was 'actively undermining our credibility' as a nation. ASPI's Director of National Security Programs John Coyne called Australia's dependence on Russian-linked fuel 'a serious national security failure and a strategic contradiction'. 'We cannot claim to support Ukraine and uphold a values-based foreign policy while simultaneously fuelling our economy with Russian-linked petroleum,' he told Sky News. 'According to reports, Australia has sent more tax dollars to the Kremlin through these imports than we've provided to Ukraine in aid. That's indefensible.' Resources Minister Madeleine King did not respond to questions asked by Sky News about the issue. Due to fuel security issues, Australia has continued to rely on imports in order to deliver its national energy demands. According to the latest Australian Petroleum Statistics, there are just 56 days of fuel supply on shore, well below the International Energy Agency's 90-day requirement. Mr Coyne said Australia's critically low domestic fuel reserves was a vulnerability. 'Our domestic fuel reserves remain critically low… Australia is dangerously exposed to global supply disruptions, conflict, or coercion,' he said. 'We are one maritime chokepoint or geopolitical flare-up away from a fuel crisis.' Mr Coyne urged the federal government to take immediate action to bolster sovereign energy capability and national resilience. 'The era of cheap energy and blind reliance on market forces to solve national problems is over. Governments can no longer outsource resilience,' he said. 'Right now, Australia is precariously vulnerable to any disruption in the global liquid fuel supply chain and that vulnerability cuts across defence, emergency response, agriculture, and logistics.' He said to address the problem, the Albanese government must close the refining loophole in its sanctions regime and improve sovereign refining and storage capacity. He added the government needed to 'embed fuel security in a coordinated, whole-of-government resilience strategy'. 'This is not just about economics. It's about whether Australia can function, respond and defend itself under stress,' Mr Coyne said.

Russian politician held over 'bloody chess' war comment
Russian politician held over 'bloody chess' war comment

West Australian

time4 hours ago

  • West Australian

Russian politician held over 'bloody chess' war comment

Russian opposition politician Lev Shlosberg has been arrested and charged with discrediting the Russian army after describing the Ukraine war as a game of "bloody chess," his party says. Shlosberg, 61, made the comment in a video debate in January in which he urged an end to the war. "We must first stop killing people," he said at the time. "If we achieve peace, we will regain freedom." The Yabloko party, of which Shlosberg is a senior member, said his arrest was linked to those remarks. He denies the charge, it said. Shlosberg was detained after authorities searched his home and the Yabloko office in Pskov, a city near the Estonian border, the party said, adding that he was placed in pre-trial detention pending a court hearing on Wednesday. He faces up to five years if convicted under a law passed shortly after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has been widely applied against dissenters. He and his wife have previously been fined under the same statute. Shlosberg is one of relatively few opposition politicians remaining in the country. Scores of others who oppose the Kremlin have fled. Alexei Navalny, the most prominent domestic opponent of President Vladimir Putin, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony in February last year. A decade ago, Shlosberg was stripped of his post in the Pskov regional assembly after he published a newspaper article alleging that Russian paratroopers buried in a cemetery in his hometown had been killed in a clandestine operation in eastern Ukraine. He separately faces another trial for failing to comply with the law on "foreign agents," a label applied by the authorities against people deemed to be involved in subversive foreign-funded political activity.

Russian politician held over 'bloody chess' war comment
Russian politician held over 'bloody chess' war comment

Perth Now

time4 hours ago

  • Perth Now

Russian politician held over 'bloody chess' war comment

Russian opposition politician Lev Shlosberg has been arrested and charged with discrediting the Russian army after describing the Ukraine war as a game of "bloody chess," his party says. Shlosberg, 61, made the comment in a video debate in January in which he urged an end to the war. "We must first stop killing people," he said at the time. "If we achieve peace, we will regain freedom." The Yabloko party, of which Shlosberg is a senior member, said his arrest was linked to those remarks. He denies the charge, it said. Shlosberg was detained after authorities searched his home and the Yabloko office in Pskov, a city near the Estonian border, the party said, adding that he was placed in pre-trial detention pending a court hearing on Wednesday. He faces up to five years if convicted under a law passed shortly after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has been widely applied against dissenters. He and his wife have previously been fined under the same statute. Shlosberg is one of relatively few opposition politicians remaining in the country. Scores of others who oppose the Kremlin have fled. Alexei Navalny, the most prominent domestic opponent of President Vladimir Putin, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony in February last year. A decade ago, Shlosberg was stripped of his post in the Pskov regional assembly after he published a newspaper article alleging that Russian paratroopers buried in a cemetery in his hometown had been killed in a clandestine operation in eastern Ukraine. He separately faces another trial for failing to comply with the law on "foreign agents," a label applied by the authorities against people deemed to be involved in subversive foreign-funded political activity.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store