Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war in first of series of planned swaps
Russia
and Ukraine exchanged prisoners of war under the age of 25 on Monday in emotional homecoming scenes, the first step in a series of planned prisoner swaps that could become the biggest of the war so far.
The exchange, announced by both sides, was the result of
direct talks in Istanbul on June 2nd that resulted in an agreement
to exchange at least 1,200 POWs on each side and to repatriate thousands of bodies of those killed in the war.
The return of prisoners and the repatriation of bodies is one of the few issues the two sides have been able to agree on, even as their broader negotiations have failed to get close to ending
Russia's war in Ukraine
, now in its fourth year.
Fighting has raged on, with Russia saying on Monday its forces had
taken control of more territory in Ukraine's east-central region of Dnipropetrovsk
and Kyiv saying
Moscow had launched its largest drone attack of the war
.
READ MORE
Officials in Kyiv said some of the Ukrainian prisoners who came home on Monday had been in Russian captivity since the beginning of the war.
At a rendezvous point for the returning Ukrainian prisoners, soon after they crossed back into northern Ukraine an official handed one of the freed men a mobile phone so that he could call his mother, a video released by Ukrainian authorities showed.
'Hi Mum, I've arrived, I'm home!' the soldier shouted into the receiver, struggling to catch his breath because he was overcome by emotion.
Neither side said how many prisoners had been swapped, but the Russian defence ministry said in a statement that the same number of military personnel had been exchanged on each side.
Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said at the weekend that a first list of 640 prisoners had been handed to Ukraine.
[
Crimea was once a crossroads of civilisations, now it's stuck in a wartime cul-de-sac
Opens in new window
]
The Russian military said its returned servicemen were now in Belarus, a close Russian ally, where they were receiving psychological and medical assistance before being transferred to Russia for further care.
Footage broadcast by Russia's RIA state news agency showed a group of freed Russian soldiers on board a coach raising their hands in the air and shouting: 'Hurrah, we're home.'
The same group was shown holding a Russian flag and chanting 'Russia! Russia!' before boarding the coach.
'It is very difficult to convey what I'm feeling inside now. But I am very happy, proud and grateful to everyone who took part in this process, in the exchange and bringing us home,' said one freed Russian soldier.
Ukrainian president
Volodymyr Zelenskiy
said his country had received a first group of prisoners from Russia and that it would take several days to complete the swap.
'Today's exchange has begun. It will be done in several stages in the coming days,' Mr Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app.
Freed Ukrainian POWs of war pose with flags following a prisoner swap with Russia. Photograph: EPA
'The process is quite complex, with many sensitive details, and negotiations continue virtually every day. We count on the full implementation of the humanitarian agreements reached during the meeting in Istanbul. We are doing everything possible to bring back every single person.'
On Sunday night and in the early hours of Monday morning, Russia launched 479 drones at Ukraine in the war's biggest overnight drone bombardment, the Ukrainian air force said.
As well as the drones, 20 missiles of various types were fired at different parts of Ukraine, according to the air force, which said the barrage targeted mainly central and western regions.
Ukraine said its air defences destroyed 277 drones and 19 missiles in mid-flight, claiming that only 10 drones or missiles hit their target.
Officials said one person was injured. It was not possible to independently verify the claims.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military claimed on Monday that special operations forces struck two Russian fighter jets stationed at the Savasleyka airfield at the Nizhny Novgorod region, 650km from the border with Ukraine.
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Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war in first of series of planned swaps
Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners of war under the age of 25 on Monday in emotional homecoming scenes, the first step in a series of planned prisoner swaps that could become the biggest of the war so far. The exchange, announced by both sides, was the result of direct talks in Istanbul on June 2nd that resulted in an agreement to exchange at least 1,200 POWs on each side and to repatriate thousands of bodies of those killed in the war. The return of prisoners and the repatriation of bodies is one of the few issues the two sides have been able to agree on, even as their broader negotiations have failed to get close to ending Russia's war in Ukraine , now in its fourth year. Fighting has raged on, with Russia saying on Monday its forces had taken control of more territory in Ukraine's east-central region of Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv saying Moscow had launched its largest drone attack of the war . READ MORE Officials in Kyiv said some of the Ukrainian prisoners who came home on Monday had been in Russian captivity since the beginning of the war. At a rendezvous point for the returning Ukrainian prisoners, soon after they crossed back into northern Ukraine an official handed one of the freed men a mobile phone so that he could call his mother, a video released by Ukrainian authorities showed. 'Hi Mum, I've arrived, I'm home!' the soldier shouted into the receiver, struggling to catch his breath because he was overcome by emotion. Neither side said how many prisoners had been swapped, but the Russian defence ministry said in a statement that the same number of military personnel had been exchanged on each side. Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said at the weekend that a first list of 640 prisoners had been handed to Ukraine. [ Crimea was once a crossroads of civilisations, now it's stuck in a wartime cul-de-sac Opens in new window ] The Russian military said its returned servicemen were now in Belarus, a close Russian ally, where they were receiving psychological and medical assistance before being transferred to Russia for further care. Footage broadcast by Russia's RIA state news agency showed a group of freed Russian soldiers on board a coach raising their hands in the air and shouting: 'Hurrah, we're home.' The same group was shown holding a Russian flag and chanting 'Russia! Russia!' before boarding the coach. 'It is very difficult to convey what I'm feeling inside now. But I am very happy, proud and grateful to everyone who took part in this process, in the exchange and bringing us home,' said one freed Russian soldier. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country had received a first group of prisoners from Russia and that it would take several days to complete the swap. 'Today's exchange has begun. It will be done in several stages in the coming days,' Mr Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app. Freed Ukrainian POWs of war pose with flags following a prisoner swap with Russia. Photograph: EPA 'The process is quite complex, with many sensitive details, and negotiations continue virtually every day. We count on the full implementation of the humanitarian agreements reached during the meeting in Istanbul. We are doing everything possible to bring back every single person.' On Sunday night and in the early hours of Monday morning, Russia launched 479 drones at Ukraine in the war's biggest overnight drone bombardment, the Ukrainian air force said. As well as the drones, 20 missiles of various types were fired at different parts of Ukraine, according to the air force, which said the barrage targeted mainly central and western regions. Ukraine said its air defences destroyed 277 drones and 19 missiles in mid-flight, claiming that only 10 drones or missiles hit their target. Officials said one person was injured. It was not possible to independently verify the claims. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military claimed on Monday that special operations forces struck two Russian fighter jets stationed at the Savasleyka airfield at the Nizhny Novgorod region, 650km from the border with Ukraine.
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
Crimea was once a crossroads of civilisations, now it's stuck in a wartime cul-de-sac
Every month, Ukraine unleashes three or four attacks on the Crimea bridge. The latest one, last week, used underwater explosives to try to damage the support structure, Ukraine said. Each salvo forces the bridge to close, disrupting the main artery between the Russian mainland and the Black Sea peninsula for up to seven hours. While official information is scarce, a channel on the Telegram app warns motorists to avoid crossing, as it did during another recent attack, because a 'hail of shrapnel' peppers the bridge when Russia's considerable air defences blast the Ukrainian drones. Ever since Russia seized Crimea in 2014 in a preview of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine eight years later, the peninsula has been a focal point of the conflict between the countries. Moscow says its conquest righted a historical wrong, and demanded in ceasefire negotiations in Istanbul last week that any settlement include international recognition of Russian control. Ukraine vows to never abandon its claim. READ MORE US president Donald Trump, amid his sporadic attempts to end the war in Ukraine, has also waded into the argument , suggesting that any peace settlement might include Washington's recognising Russian sovereignty over Crimea. Overall, the war has solidified changes to life in Crimea that began with the annexation, isolating the peninsula as a scenic but volatile beach destination limited largely to Russians. The majority 'Crimea is ours' crowd – nicknamed after a Kremlin slogan celebrating the annexation – tends to downplay the conflict as an inconvenience. Opponents, especially members of the indigenous Crimean Tatar minority, who have long accused Russia of systemic oppression, denounce the war for making Crimea less free, less cosmopolitan and far less hospitable. People sit on a bench in front of a building with a large banner in support of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, in Yalta, Crimea, in May 2023. Photograph: EPA 'No freedom, no choice – and on top of that, it's unsafe,' said a 35-year-old Yalta resident named Irina, who declined to use her full name out of fear of legal problems. 'It's like bingo, but in a bad way. It's a situation that people did not choose, but are forced to live in.' Crimea has been a crossroads for millenniums, colonised by serial invaders from Mongol warriors to Genoese traders. Catherine the Great annexed it for Russia in 1783, and the second World War brought a Nazi occupation. Josef Stalin, Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met there in 1945, at the tsar's former palace at Yalta, to carve postwar Europe into spheres of influence. In 1954, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred control over Crimea to Ukraine from Russia, an unremarkable move at the time, since both Ukraine and Russia were within the same country. In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Crimea remained part of Ukraine until Russian president Vladimir Putin seized it. With its palm trees and pebble beaches resembling the south of France, Crimea has long been a summer playground. While roughly six million Ukrainians and Russians visited annually before the annexation, the numbers plummeted afterwards and then nosedived again with the invasion. Some critics said nothing mattered more to Crimeans than exploiting tourists. 'If America came and said, 'You're going to be an American state now,' they would probably say, 'Okay, will we have a tourist season or not?'' Irina grumbled. Several of Russia's worst setbacks in the war have occurred in Crimea. Repeated drone attacks forced the Russian navy to abandon Sevastopol, its home port for more than 220 years, to hide in distant Caucasian harbours. This year, security concerns prompted the city to cancel its May 9th Victory Day parade for the third year in a row. The Kerch Strait Bridge was partly closed for four months after October 2022, when Ukraine severely damaged it with an explosives-laden truck. Now, every vehicle must be inspected before crossing, which some residents said gave it the feel of an international border. This year, indications are that tourists might be inclined to ignore the war. On the May 1st national holiday, thousands of vehicles waiting to enter created a six-hour traffic jam, according to the Telegram bridge watch channel. People walk in front of a poster of Russian president Vladimir Putin in Simferopol, Crimea, in March 2024. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images Visitors cluster along the southern coast, distant from Ukraine's habitual military targets. Ekaterina, the owner of a small hotel, said guests often asked about drones and worried about crossing the bridge, but they still come. Several hotels are being built around hers, she noted. Reminders of the war abound. In June 2024, fragments from a Ukrainian missile killed five beachgoers and wounded more than 100, according to Russia's defence ministry. The next day, people went to the beach anyway, but wore name tags in case ambulance crews needed to identify them, one witness said. Residents of Sevastopol described themselves as inured to endless air raid sirens, while people in larger cities such as Simferopol and Yalta said drones streaked overhead relatively rarely. Igor (85), a philosophy professor living near the Nakhimov Naval Institute warfare academy, said he heard explosions almost nightly, but just hugged his Yorkshire terrier and waited for the attack to end. If every siren sent him to the bomb shelter, he would never sleep, he added. The Crimea bridge regularly comes under attack from Ukraine. Photograph: EPA Military vehicles crowd the roads, residents said, and large billboards exhort men to sign up. One version says: 'You like working in the fresh air? You want to improve your wellbeing, have an apartment and a land plot near the sea? Sign the contract and get 1 million roubles immediately.' (About €11,000.) War fatalities among soldiers include more than 1,200 men either from the peninsula or stationed there, according to a tally maintained by Mediazona and the BBC Russian language service. Civilian deaths have been relatively rare. The hotel owner, who sings in a small jazz ensemble, said the group avoided outdoor concerts but had recently performed in a military hospital. 'It was such a strange feeling – some people were severely injured, with limb amputations, but they were in the hall listening to us,' she said. 'You know it's like life and death walking hand-in-hand.' Russia's most significant territorial gain in the war was the land along Ukraine's southern coast linking Crimea to mainland Russia, about 500km east. A new road provides an alternative route when the bridge comes under attack, but some dislike its repeated military checkpoints. Several hundred people have been criminally prosecuted for political reasons since Russia took Crimea, according to OVD-Info, an independent organisation that tracks open court data. It also found 1,275 administrative cases filed against Crimeans accused of discrediting the armed forces, among the highest number of any Russian region. Defence lawyers for pro-Ukrainian activists can find themselves disbarred. Despite improved living standards, Crimeans rank below the Russian national average in income, especially as the war has pushed up prices, although some benefit. Crimean wines gained a new cachet after the European Union banned most wine sales to Russia, so the cost of vineyard land more than quintupled in four years, one vintner said. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have left the peninsula, while a wave of Russians have emigrated from the mainland, although concrete numbers are elusive. Ukraine says acknowledging Russian sovereignty would reward aggression. Crimeans often react to the idea that a war settlement might include recognition of the peninsula as Russian with a shrug, although they would welcome the end of sanctions that restrict travel and deter outside investment. 'Honestly speaking, the majority of Crimean people don't think about recognition, because they consider Crimea a part of Russia,' said Lubov V Gribkova, a foreign relations adviser to the mayor of Yalta. This article originally appeared in The New York Times .
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Irish Independent
Planning sought to turn former Wexford convent into IPAS centre
Although Wexford County Council ruled the development non-exempt in the previous application, Ian Skeffington has lodged another application, with letters supporting the need for the centre. The application is looking to see if the project would be ruled a development or exempt from planning permission, specifying that the occupants are to be Ukrainian and international protection applicants. The cover letter consists of a letter from Farry Town Planning Ltd, as a referral pursuant, that emphasises the need for appropriate accommodation for refugees fleeing conflict. "There is a clearly a great need nationally for all types of residential accommodation, ranging from standard houses and apartments, through student dwellings and nursing homes and onwards to centres for wartime refugees and international protection applicants and every effort needs to be made by the various stakeholders, including the Planning Authority, to accelerate the delivery of such housing,' they wrote. "Indeed, all participants in this overall process must aim to promote the provision of such accommodation, to the degree that these types of dwellings are required immediately and not at some future stage." "We thus respectfully invite Wexford County Council to endorse this referral request, in order that this heritage building can be used for war refugees and international protection applicants,' they added. As part of their argument, they highlighted that, in short, the temporary use of the former convent to house both Ukrainian and international protection applicants does not need the usual planning permissions under current laws. They pointed to the European Union (Planning and Development) (Disgraced Persons from Ukraine Temporary Protection) Regulations 2022 which specifically exempt temporary accommodation for displaced persons from usual planning rules. Regarding housing international protection applicants within the building also, they said this also does not require planning consent under the Planning and Development (Exempted Development) (No 4) Regulations 2022, as long as the building is not protected by heritage laws. A document comprised by Chris Ryan, a RIAI Grade 1 Conservation Architect, also ruled that the proposed change of use would turn an underutilised building into an establishment with use, without negative impacts on the structure while restoring the South garden. Included in the application, is a letter from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth addressed to Ian Skeffington in which they confirm they are interested in using the site should he acquire appropriate permissions.
