Ukraine, Russia trade almost 200 prisoners of war

Ukraine and Russia traded almost 200 prisoners of war in a swap announced separately by both sides, with the body of two British volunteers also sent back to Ukraine.

Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said 116 Ukrainians had returned, while Russian news agencies cited Moscow’s Defense Ministry as saying 63 Russian prisoners of war had been released.

Yermak said the bodies of volunteers Andrew Bagshaw and Chris Parry had been sent back to Ukraine. Bagshaw, 47, a dual New Zealand-British citizen, and British volunteer Parry, 28, died during a humanitarian evacuation attempt in Eastern Ukraine in January, Parry’s family said.

The pair were trying to rescue an elderly woman from the city of Soledar, in the Donetsk region, where there is heavy fighting, when their car was hit by an artillery shell, her family said.

Yermak wrote in Telegram that the prisoners of war released from Ukraine include troops held in Mariupol during the months-long siege of Moscow that reduced the southern port city to rubble, as well as guerrilla fighters from the Kherson region and snipers captured during the ongoing fierce fighting. – continuous the eastern city of Bakhmut.

Russian defense officials, meanwhile, announced that 63 Russian soldiers had returned from Ukraine after the exchange, including several “special category” prisoners who were released after mediation by the United Arab Emirates.

A statement issued on Saturday by Russia’s Defense Ministry did not provide details on the “special category” prisoners.

At least three civilians were killed in Ukraine in the past 24 hours as Russian forces attacked nine regions in the south, north and east of the country, according to a report on Ukrainian TV by the regional governor on Monday morning.

Two people were killed and 14 others were injured in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region by Russian missiles and bullets, local Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Telegram update on Friday morning.

The death toll included one person killed and seven others wounded on Friday after a Russian missile hit Toretsk, a town in the Donetsk region. Kyrylenko said that 34 houses, two kindergartens, an outpatient clinic, a library, a cultural center and other buildings were damaged in the attack.

Seven teenagers suffered shrapnel wounds after an anti-personnel mine exploded on Friday in the northeastern city of Izium, local Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. He said they were all hospitalized but their lives were not in danger.

The power is off

Meanwhile, a serious accident at a high-voltage substation in Ukraine’s Odesa region caused an emergency power outage in the region’s capital, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Saturday.

“The situation is difficult, the scale of the accident is significant, it is not possible to quickly restore the electricity supply, especially for critical infrastructure,” Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.

He said the substation had previously been damaged several times by Russian missile strikes.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian regional officials reported overnight attacks by Russia on border settlements in the northern Sumy region, as well as the town of Marhanets, which neighbors the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Kyiv has long accused Moscow of using the plant, which was seized by Russian forces early in the war, as a base to launch attacks on Ukrainian-held territory across the Dnipro River.