Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces advance in key eastern town

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has freed at least 10 political prisoners, rights campaigners said on Thursday, including a veteran opposition figure suffering from cancer.

But the rare pardon still leaves some 1,400 people behind bars for political activity, most of them arrested after peaceful mass protests in 2020 and convicted on a range of charges related to alleged extremism.

Human rights group Viasna said it knew of three women and seven men who had been freed. The only one named so far by relatives is Ryhor Kastusiou, 67, a former opposition party leader and presidential candidate. He was arrested in 2021 and sentenced the following year to 10 years in a penal colony after being convicted of plotting against the government to seize power. Following his arrest, he was diagnosed with cancer.

Activists said their happiness at the releases was bitter-sweet.

“This is a very great joy, of course, almost childlike. But it is joy through tears – there is anger too for what people have to go through,” said Inna Kovalenok, a representative of a relatives’ group that campaigns for the release of prisoners.

Mr Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, this week announced an amnesty to mark the 80th anniversary of Belarus’s liberation from the Nazis in teh Second World War. State news agency Belta said it was expected to apply to about 7,850 prisoners including minors, pregnant women, pensioners and people suffering from tuberculosis or cancer.

Moscow is turning to a new mercenary group to train paid fighters from across the continent. In case you missed it:

The number of people wounded in Russian strikes on northeastern, eastern and southern Ukraine on Thursday has risen to 19, local authorities said.

A woman was killed and a man was wounded in a strike by a Russian guided bomb on the village of Ruska Lozova, in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on the Telegram messaging app.

Nine others, including four children, were wounded in a drone attack and shelling in the town of Novohrodivka, in the frontline Donetsk region, governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.

Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak reported seven wounded in the southern town of Nikopol. He had said earlier that Russian forces had attacked areas near Nikopol with drones and artillery on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

Two civilians in the southern city of Kherson were wounded in a drone strike, the local administration said.

An elderly woman has been killed and eight people wounded in Russian strikes on northeastern and southern Ukraine, local authorities said.

The woman was killed and a man wounded by a guided bomb on the village of Ruska Lozova in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on the Telegram messaging app.

Seven others were wounded in the town of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region, governor Serhiy Lysak said. He had said earlier that Russian forces had attacked areas near Nikopol with drones and artillery on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

Both the Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions have been subjected to attacks since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure, but thousands of people have been killed and wounded.

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia would not declare a ceasefire in Ukraine until Kyiv took steps that were “irreversible” and acceptable to Moscow.

He has said it was pointless for Russia to attempt to appeal to the Ukrainian Parliament when it came to Moscow’s ideas to end the conflict between the two countries.

The president said he had seen fragments of the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump but that he had enough of his own work to attend to, and added that the United States remained a great power.

Asked about Mr Trump’s suggestion that the war could be ended swiftly, Mr Putin said Russia took him seriously.

Ukraine’s defensive positions in Chasiv Yar were destroyed and Russia did not leave “a single intact building”, a spokesperson for the ground forces formation has said.

Nazar Voloshyn said there would have been a threat of serious casualties if Ukrainian troops had remained in the area.

The Ukrainian army retreated from a northeastern neighbourhood in Chasiv Yar, a strategically important town in the eastern Donetsk region.

Months of relentless Russian artillery strikes have devastated the town, with homes and municipal offices charred, and a town that once had a population of 12,000 has been left deserted.

The leadership of Belarus has been cracking down on dissent constantly for nearly four years. Several weeks ago, authorities raided homes and seized property belonging to 104 opposition activists who had fled the country:

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has freed at least 10 political prisoners, including a veteran opposition figure suffering from cancer, rights campaigners say.

But the rare pardon still leaves some 1,400 people behind bars for political activity, most of them arrested after peaceful mass protests in 2020 and convicted of charges related to alleged extremism.

Human-rights group Viasna said it knew of three women and seven men who had been freed.

The only one named so far by relatives is Ryhor Kastusiou, 67, a former opposition party leader and presidential candidate. He was arrested in 2021 and sentenced the following year to 10 years in a penal colony. Following his arrest, he was diagnosed with cancer.

Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, this week announced an amnesty to mark the 80th anniversary of Belarus’s liberation from the Nazis in World War Two. State news agency Belta said it was expected to apply to about 7,850 prisoners including minors, pregnant women, pensioners and people suffering from tuberculosis or cancer.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky says Donald Trump knows how to end the war in Ukraine, and he should “tell us today”.

Mr Zelensky said if there were risks to Ukrainian independence “we want to be ready for this, we want to know”, in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

Mr Trump, who is currently ahead in the polls over US President Joe Biden ahead of November’s election, has previously said he’ll end the war.

The interview comes as Russia’s force slowly advance in the Donetsk region with a new front near the northeastern city of Kharkivopened over recent months.

A Russian missile attack on Ukraine‘s Poltava region damaged gas infrastructure, killing one person and injuring three more, Ukraine‘s energy ministry said on Thursday.

An unspecified infrastructure as well as the facility of the gas producer Ukrgasvydobyvannia were damaged in the strike on Wednesday, the ministry said on Telegram.

Ukraine‘s air forces said on Wednesday they downed a Russian missile over the region but the regional governor reported damage done by debris.