Two Russian soldiers needing medical care returned by Ukraine, Moscow says
A ministry statement on Telegram said the two servicemen were handed over and taken to Belarus, one of Moscow's closest allies, on Russia's western border. They were receiving treatment in Belarus and would soon return to Russia, it said.
The statement said the action was undertaken on the basis of agreements reached at the second of two direct meetings aimed at ending the conflict last month between Russian and Ukrainian representatives.
The two meetings in Istanbul resulted in agreements to return prisoners of war and remains of fallen soldiers, but made little progress towards an end to the more than three-year-old conflict.
Large exchanges have taken place since the two meetings.
A third meeting was due to be held on Wednesday in the Turkish city.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
5 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv faces Russian missile attack as both sides trade strikes
Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv early on Sunday, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said on the Telegram messaging app. Reuters' witnesses heard a loud blast shaking the city soon after midnight. The reported attack comes days after Russia's worst airstrike of the year on Kyiv, which killed at least 31 people, including five children, and wounded more than 150. Ukraine on Saturday said it hit military targets and a gas pipeline in drone attacks in Russia, where local authorities said three people were killed and two others wounded. Ukraine's SBU security service said the strikes, carried out on Friday night by long-distance drones, hit a military airfield in the south-western town of Primorsko-Akhtarsk. They caused a fire in an areas where Iranian-built Shahed drones – relied on by Russia to attack Ukraine – were stored, the SBU said. The SBU said the strikes also hit a company in Russia's southern Penza region, which it said 'works for the Russian military-industrial complex', making military digital networks, aviation devices, armoured vehicles and ships. The governor for Russia's Penza region, Oleg Melnichenko, said on Telegram that one woman had been killed and two other people were wounded in that attack. Russia's defence ministry said its air-defence systems had destroyed 112 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory – 34 over the Rostov region – in a nearly nine-hour period, from Friday night to Saturday morning. An elderly man was killed inside a house that caught fire due to falling drone debris in the Samara region, governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev posted on Telegram. In the Rostov region, a guard at an industrial facility was killed after a drone attack and a fire in one of the site's buildings, acting Rostov governor Yuri Sliusar said. 'The military repelled a massive air attack during the night,' destroying drones over seven districts, Sliusar posted on Telegram. Meanwhile the Ukraine military's Unmanned Systems Forces said they had hit a Russian oil refinery in Ryazan, south-east of Moscow, causing a fire on its premises. Also hit, the USF said, was the Annanefteprodukt oil storage facility in the Voronezh region that borders on northeastern Ukraine. The statement did not specify how the facilities were hit, but the USF specialises in drone warfare, including long-range strikes. Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strike in the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022. Kyiv says that its attacks inside Russia are aimed at destroying infrastructure key to Moscow's war efforts and are in response to Russia's relentless strikes on Ukraine. Indian oil refineries will continue to buy oil from Russia, officials have said, before threatened US sanctions next week against Moscow's trading partners over the war in Ukraine. Media reports on Friday had suggested India, a big energy importer, would stop buying cheap Russian oil. Trump later told reporters that such a move would be 'a good step' if true. 'I understand that India is no longer going to be buying oil from Russia,' he said. 'That's what I heard. I don't know if that's right or not. That is a good step. We will see what happens.' Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday that they had arrested several politicians in connection with a 'large-scale corruption scheme' in the defence sector, shortly after an uproar over the independence of anti-graft bodies. A law passed in late July stripped the National Anti-Corruption Agency (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) of their independence and placed them under the supervision of the prosecutor general, himself appointed by the head of state. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday backtracked and restored the bodies' independence after an outcry from the country's allies and the first anti-government street demonstrations since Russia's invasion. The NABU on Saturday said it and the SAP had exposed 'a scheme for the systematic misappropriation of budget funds allocated by local authorities for the needs of the defence forces, as well as the receipt and provision of unlawful benefits on an especially large scale'. It said the scheme involved inflating prices for electronic warfare and drone equipment, and then funnelling off 30% of the contract amounts. The suspects include a member of parliament, heads of district and city administrations, members of the National Guard, and executives at defence companies. The NABU said it has made four arrests so far but did not identify those detained. Zelensky said in a statement: 'I am grateful to the anti-corruption agencies for their work … It is important that anti-corruption institutions operate independently, and the law passed on Thursday guarantees them all the tools necessary for a real fight against corruption.' A fire that broke out near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after Ukrainian shelling has been brought under control, the Russian-installed administration of the plant in Ukraine said on Saturday. Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in the first weeks of Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Both sides have accused each other of firing or taking other actions that could trigger a nuclear accident. The plant's administration said on Telegram that a civilian had been killed in the shelling, but that no plant employees or members of the emergency services had been injured. The station, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, is not operating but still requires power to keep its nuclear fuel cool.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
India to defy Trump's threats and keep buying Russian oil, government sources say
India will keep purchasing oil from Russia, despite President Donald Trump threatening to impose penalties for doing so, two Indian officials said on Saturday Officials in India, the most populous country on Earth, told Reuters and That contradicted a statement from Trump, who on Friday told reporters his understanding was that India would 'no longer' be buying oil from Russia. "These are long-term oil contracts," an unnamed Indian official told Reuters. "It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight.' Last week, Trump said India would face unspecified penalties for buying Russian oil in addition to a 25 percent tariff on goods. However, China and Turkey, two countries that also purchase large amounts of Russian oil, have not faced similar penalty threats. India drastically increased its import of Russian oil after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in 2022, while many other countries began to cut back it's imports. The cheap availability of Russian oil allowed India to reduce its reliance on other countries, such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq, who typically sell to Asian countries at a higher price. While India faced criticisms for doing so, the general consensus around India's increase in imports has been that it helps avoid a global surge in oil prices. It's unclear why exactly Trump has targeted India in reducing its import of Russian oil. The president has recently expressed frustrations with Russian President Vladimir Putin for failing to come to the peace talks table to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine. On Friday, India's external affairs spokesperson Randdhir Jaiswal said India and Russia had a 'time-tested partnership' and that India was analyzing its energy sourcing. "On our energy sourcing requirements ... we look at what is there available in the markets, what is there on offer, and also what is the prevailing global situation or circumstances," Jaiswal said, according to Reuters. India heavily relies on energy imports to sustain the needs of it's more than one billion population. It imports more than one million barrels per day.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Ukraine officials held in military drone corruption probe
A Ukrainian MP and other officials have been arrested after the country's anti-corruption agencies uncovered what they call a large-scale bribery scheme in the purchase of drones and electronic warfare a statement on X, President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Ukrainian MP, heads of district and city administrations and several National Guard service members had been exposed for their involvement, which involved state contracts with suppliers being signed at prices inflated by up to 30%.Zelensky wrote that there can be "zero tolerance" for corruption in Ukraine, and thanked the agencies for their independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies was restored on Thursday, following nationwide protests. Zelensky's government faced an extensive backlash after introducing a bill that would strip the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, known as Nabu and Sap respectively, of their president claimed the agencies needed to be "cleared of Russian influence", and sought to give the general prosecutor the authority to decide who should be prosecuted in high-level corruption saw the move as a step backwards for corruption in Ukraine, resulting in the largest anti-government demonstrations since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in acknowledged public anger and submitted a new bill restoring the agencies' former independence, which was voted through by parliament just nine days after the original bill had been head of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), Kyrylo Budanov, thanked Zelensky for "hearing the public's call" regarding the powers of anti-corruption agencies and "not making a mistake".The move was also praised by EU allies, who had voiced concerns over the implications of the original bill. The fight against corruption is significant in Ukraine's bid to join the EU. The creation of Nabu and Sap was a requirement set by the European Commission and International Monetary Fund in 2014, in order to move towards a relaxation of visa a result, Kyiv was granted EU candidate status in 2022, bringing the nation another step towards closer ties with the their establishment, Nabu and Sap have been involved in far-reaching investigations into the misappropriation of millions of dollars' worth of assets and bribes across various ministries and sectors.A joint investigation in 2023 resulted in the arrest of the head of Ukraine's Supreme Court, Vsevolod Kniaziev, in connection with a $3m (£2.4m; €2.9m) bribe.
