Russia and Ukraine exchanged over 100 prisoners of conflict on Saturday as Kyiv marked the 3rd Independence Day since Moscow’s full-scale invasion.Ukraine mentioned the 115 servicemen who had been freed had been conscripts, lots of whom had been taken prisoner within the first months of Russia’s invasion. Amongst them are just about 50 infantrymen captured via Russian forces from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.The Russian Protection Ministry mentioned the 115 Russian infantrymen have been captured within the Kursk area, the place Ukrainian forces introduced their marvel offensive into Russia two weeks in the past. The ministry mentioned the warriors had been lately in Belarus however can be taken to Russia for clinical remedy and rehabilitation.
A veteran will pay his appreciate at a makeshift memorial for fallen Ukrainian infantrymen right through the Ukrainian Independence Day on Independence Sq. in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024.
Efrem Lukatsky / AP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned in a submit on X that the United Arab Emirates had once more brokered the change, the fifty fifth since Russia introduced a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
Footage connected to Zelenskyy’s submit display gaunt servicemen with shaven heads and wrapped in Ukrainian flags.”We have in mind every one. We’re looking and doing our very best to get everybody again,” Zelenskyy mentioned within the submit.
Officers from the 2 aspects meet simplest once they switch their lifeless and POWs, after long preparation and international relations. Neither Ukraine nor Russia discloses what number of POWs there are in overall.In line with the U.N., maximum Ukrainian POWs undergo regimen clinical overlook, serious and systematic mistreatment, or even torture whilst in detention. There have additionally been remoted stories of abuse of Russian infantrymen, most commonly right through seize or transit to internment websites.In January, Russia and Ukraine exchanged masses of prisoners of conflict within the largest unmarried free up.Two years in the past, Zelenskyy mentioned Russian forces introduced a rocket assault on a Ukrainian teach station at the embattled nation’s Independence Day, killing 22 other folks. Zelenskyy had warned for days that Moscow may try “one thing in particular merciless.”
The deadly assault happened in Chaplyne, a the town of about 3,500 other folks within the central Dnipropetrovsk area, Ukrainian information businesses quoted Zelenskyy as telling the U.N. Safety Council by means of video. The president’s administrative center additionally reported that an 11-year-old kid was once killed via rocket fireplace previous within the day within the agreement.Drone and artillery assaults continueTwo other folks had been killed and 4 had been wounded, together with a toddler, when Russian forces shelled the southern Ukrainian town of Kherson, the capital of the partly occupied Kherson area, on Saturday, in step with native officers.Ukraine’s air drive mentioned it had intercepted and destroyed seven drones over the rustic’s south. Russian long-range bombers additionally attacked the world of Zmiinyi (Snake) Island with 4 cruise missiles, whilst the broader Kherson area was once additionally struck via aerial bombs.In Russia, the Protection Ministry mentioned Saturday that air defenses had shot down seven drones in a single day.5 drones had been downed over the southwestern Voronezh area bordering Ukraine, wounding two other folks, regional Gov. Aleksandr Gusev mentioned. Information outlet Astra revealed movies showing to turn explosions at an ammunition depot after being hit via a drone. The movies may just no longer be independently verified.Two other folks had been wounded in a drone assault within the Belgorod area, additionally bordering Ukraine, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov mentioned. Native government didn’t document any casualties within the Bryansk area, the place the 5th drone was once intercepted.Within the Kursk area, regional Gov. Alexei Smirnov mentioned Saturday that 3 missiles had been shot down in a single day and any other 4 on Saturday morning.
Russian air defenses shot down two extra drones on Saturday morning, Russia’s Protection Ministry mentioned — one over the Kursk area and one over the Bryansk area.Independence Day commemorationsUkraine marked its thirty third Independence Day on Saturday as its conflict towards Russia’s aggression reached a 30-month milestone. No festivities are deliberate and as an alternative, Ukrainians will mark the day with commemorations for civilians and infantrymen killed within the conflict.Poland’s President Andrzej Duda arrived via teach early Saturday to Kyiv in a symbolic display of enhance from certainly one of Ukraine’s key allies.Movies posted via his administrative center display him being greeted via Ukrainian officers and later paying his respects in a rite on the Wall of Remembrance of the Fallen for Ukraine.Duda’s talk over with to Kyiv, his 5th since February 2022, sends a message that Warsaw’s enhance for Ukraine stays robust because the conflict drags on for the 3rd yr.Poland, positioned to Ukraine’s west, has donated palms and develop into a hub for Western guns destined for Ukraine. It has additionally welcomed tens of 1000’s of Ukrainians who fled the conflict. It hosts essentially the most Ukrainian refugees out of doors of the rustic after Germany.A business dispute over Ukrainian grain that dragged down ties remaining yr, and ancient grievances between the 2 international locations, from time to time galvanize dangerous emotions, in particular amongst Poles who have in mind a Global Conflict II-era bloodbath via Ukrainian nationalists.
Extra
