Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow and Kyiv swap at least 300 prisoners of war

If the last 25 years have taught us anything, it is exactly who the Russian president is – and what he is capable of:

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates, officials said Monday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 150 Russian soldiers were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Ukraine, during an air raid alert on Tuesday, according to a Reuters witness.

The then prime minister Vladimir Putin’s media operation had already begun to portray the ex-KGB operative in stark contrast to the moribund Yeltsin as an action man. That same year the second Chechen war on the country’s southern border raged. Twenty-five years later, Vladimir Putin is still in the Kremlin but Russia is again in the grip of war on its post-Soviet periphery after last week’s downing of an airliner over Chechen airspace.

Add to the tension that Putin’s Russia has been engaged in a covert war against Ukraine since 2014, which he had turned into a full-scale invasion by early 2022 – a conflict that remains at an impasse today. As with his earlier war against Chechnya, Putin’s obduracy turned an opening military fiasco into a brutal war of attrition which Russia’s resources could win at a huge price.

Born in post-war Leningrad amid the grim legacy of the Nazi siege, the young Vladimir Putin learnt survival arts more appropriate to the chaotic post-Soviet dog-eat-dog society of the 1990s than the shining utopian future promoted by communist propaganda.

Read the full piece by Mark Almond here:

An oil depot in Russia’s Smolensk region reportedly caught fire following a drone attack overnight on 31 December, according to regional authorities.

“A Ukrainian drone attack targeted a fuel and energy facility, resulting in fires,” the head of the Yartsevo district, Roman Zakharov, wrote on his Telegram channel.

The claims could not be verified independently.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates, officials said Monday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 150 Russian soldiers were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people.

The Biden administration has announced almost $6bn in military and budget aid for Ukraine before president-elect Donald Trump takes office next month.

“I’ve directed my administration to continue surging as much assistance to Ukraine as quickly as possible,” Mr Biden said in a statement.

“At my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war over the remainder of my time in office.”

This includes $2.5bn more in weapons and $3.4bn in economic assistance to help pay for other government services.