Ukraine war latest: Russia and Ukraine swap 115 prisoners as Zelenskyy celebrates independence day (2024)

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged "to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes with whatever it takes" in a video released for Ukraine's independence day today.

He finished the message with the national salute "Slava Ukraini" - meaning glory to Ukraine.

Pictures have emerged of the aftermath of a prisoner exchange swap.

Ukrainian soldiers are seen holding flags and hugging fellow troops after their release from Russian custody this morning.

Meanwhile, photos released by the Russia's defence ministry show some its servicemen who were captured during Ukraine's latest incursion in Kursk being taken away by bus.

Ukraine and Russia have agreed to exchange 115 prisoners of war.

Ukrainian officials said the 115 servicemen who were freed were conscripts, many of whom were taken prisoner in the first months of Russia's invasion.

Among them are nearly 50 soldiers captured by Russian forces from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.

Russia's defence ministry said the 115 Russian soldiers had been captured in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched their surprise offensive into Russia two weeks ago.

The ministry said the soldiers were currently in Belarus, but would be taken to Russia for medical treatment and rehabilitation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that the United Arab Emirates had brokered the exchange, the 55th since February 2022.

Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

We'll be bringing you all the latest updates as Ukrainian forces continue to cause problems for Russia in its Kursk region.

The two countries are also set to exchange 115 prisoners today, including some who were captured inside Kursk.

Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy referred to the Russian border as that "between Ukraine and oppression, between life and death… an independent European state and the number one terrorist organisation in the world" in a speech this morning.

Before we bring you more of today's news, here's a reminder of what's happened in the last 24 hours:

• India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sit down for talks with Russia during his trip to Kyiv;
• The Wagner mercenary group has become "increasingly fragmented" in the year since its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and founder Dmitry Utkin were killed in a plane crash, according to the UK Ministry of Defence;
• Ukrainian forces claimed they have recaptured nearly two square kilometres of territory in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
  

We're ending our live coverage of the Ukraine war for now.

We will return with any major developments this evening, but if not we'll be back soon with all the latest updates.

Here is a reminder of today's key events:

• India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sit down for talks with Russia to end the war as the two leaders met in Kyiv;
• Russia accused Ukraine of trying to attack a nuclear power plant in an overnight drone attack;
• The Wagner mercenary group has become "increasingly fragmented" in the year since its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and founder Dmitry Utkin were killed in a plane crash, according to the UK Ministry of Defence;
• Germany is investigating suspected drone espionage after drones were flown over several industrial sites;
• Ukrainian forces claimed they have recaptured nearly two square kilometres of territory in the northeastern Kharkiv region;
• Russian snipers killed four prisoners at a penal colony who seized prison guards as hostages and declared allegiance to the Islamic State - all hostages were freed, local media reports said;
• Moscow suspended a ferry service operating between its southern territory and Crimea following a Ukrainian attack.

Russia has reportedly reinforced troops in its push for the key Ukrainian strategic hub of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region.

Although Moscow has been redeploying troops from other regions in Ukraine back to Russia in order to head off a Ukrainian incursion, it has not redeployed troops from its offensive towards the city but has instead reinforced them, according to The Economist.

Russian forces have been pushing towards the key strategic hub for months.

Capturing the city would compromise Kyiv's defensive abilities and supply routes, and bring Russia closer to its stated aim of controlling the entire Donetsk region.

Earlier, our military analyst Sean Bell answered a reader's question on whether there is a response to come from Russia over the Kursk invasion - and he said Moscow might focus on its offensive towards Pokrovsk.

You can read more on that below...

We brought you reports earlier that prisoners at a Russian penal colony had taken prison staff hostage and killed one person.

Local news outlets now say snipers from Russia's national guard have killed the four hostage-takers.

The National Guard Service said the inmates were "neutralised" and all hostages freed, the reports said, though the number of hostages was not specified.

Before the inmates were shot, state news agency TASS said four victims were taken to a local hospital, with two of them in serious condition.

Unconfirmed reports on the Telegram messaging app said one or two people had died.

A video filmed by the attackers showed four uniformed officials lying in pools of blood - three of them motionless. Another was sitting upright in a doorway with a knife held to his neck.

One man shouted that they were Islamic State militants and had seized control of the prison in the Volgograd region.

Other videos showed four men pacing about a prison yard where a bloodied prison staff member was being held hostage.

One of the prisoners appeared to have an improvised explosive vest while the others were carrying knives and hammers.

Russian media said the four suspects were citizens of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and three were in jail for drug offences and the fourth for unpremeditated murder.

The United States has added 105 Russian and Chinese firms to a trade restriction list for allegedly supporting the Russian military, ramping up pressure on Moscow's war efforts in Ukraine.

The 63 Russian and 42 Chinese companies, along with 18 from other countries, were targeted for several reasons, from sending US electronics to Russian military-related parties to producing thousands of Shahed-136 drones for Moscow to use in Ukraine.

Being added to the entity list means US suppliers will have to apply for a hard-to-get licence if they want to ship to the targeted companies.

Many of the firms were also given a special designation forcing overseas suppliers to get the same US licences before shipping to the targeted companies.

Russia has accused Ukraine of trying to attack a nuclear power plant in an overnight drone attack.

It is the second time Moscow has made such allegations in two days.

The nuclear plant is located in the Kursk region in western Russia, where fighting has raged since Kyiv's forces launched an incursion into Russian territory.

The Ukrainian defence ministry is yet to comment on the Russian allegation.

Meanwhile the Russian defence ministry said its air defence units had shot down three Ukrainian drones in the region overnight.

It said it had thwarted Kyiv's attempt to carry out "a terrorist attack" against Russian facilities.

Russian state news agency TASS reported a drone had been shot down near a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at the Kursk power plant.

TASS quoted Russian foreign ministry spokesperson MariaZakharova as saying it was an "act of nuclear terrorism" requiring an immediate response from the UN nuclear watchdog, theInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The head of the IAEA Rafael Grossi is due to visit the power plant next week and has appealed for maximum restraint in order to avoid a nuclear accident.