Russia and Ukraine said on Saturday that they exchanged each of the hundreds of prisoners in the the greatest exchange Since the Russian invasion on a large scale started over three years ago.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that 246 members of the Russian service had been returned from a territory controlled by kyiv and that “as a gesture of goodwill” 31, injured Ukrainian war prisoners were transferred in exchange for 15 injured Russian soldiers needing urgent medical care.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr said 277 “Ukrainian warriors returned home from Russian captivity”.
This is an update of news. The previous history of after follows below.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, citing humanitarian reasons, Kremlin said on Saturday.
The announcement occurred on the same day that the Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces had pushed Ukrainian troops from one of their last before Surprise incursion Last year.
According to the Kremlin, the ceasefire will last from 6 p.m. Moscow time (1500 GMT) on Saturday at midnight (2100 GMT) after Easter Sunday.
“We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel the possible violations of the truce and the provocations of the enemy, all its aggressive actions,” said Putin during a meeting with the chief of the general staff Gerasimov, in a video shared by the Kremlin press service.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the ceasefire “another attempt by Putin to play with human lives”. He wrote on X that “the alerts of air raids propagate through Ukraine” and “Shahed drones in our heavens reveal Putin’s true attitude towards Easter and human life”.
Putin’s announcement came after the American president Donald Trump Friday, negotiations between Ukraine and Russia “come to the head” and insisted that none of the parties “plays” in his push to put an end to the three -year war.
Trump spoke shortly after the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, warned that the United States could “pass” Russia-Ukraine Peace Agreement If there is no progress in the coming days, after months of effort has failed to end Fights.
In January 2023, Putin had ordered her Ukraine forces to observe a unilateral, This 36 -hour cessor For Orthodox Christmas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had prevented that his forces would reject Putin’s request, but rejected the Russian move as playing time to bring together his invasion forces and prepare additional attacks.
Russia says that its forces are about to resume Kursk
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that its forces took control of the village of Oleshya, in the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine. The Associated Press was unable to immediately verify the complaint and there was no immediate response from Ukrainian officials.
According to the Russian news agency of the TASS state, Russia is still fighting to push the Ukrainian forces of the village of Gornal, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) south of Oleshya.
“The Russian army has not yet pushed the Ukrainian armed forces out of the Gornal … in order to completely free the region of Kursk. Fierce fights are underway in the regulations,” the agency reported, citing Russian security agencies.
The Russian and North Korean soldiers almost deprived kyiv of a key negotiation program by taking over the majority of the region, where Ukrainian troops organized a Surprise incursion Last year.
In other developments, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia had shot 87 drones and explosive lures in the last wave of attacks overnight. He said 33 of them were intercepted and that 36 others were lost, having probably been stuck electronically.
The Russian attacks damaged the farms in the Odesa region and sparked fires in the Sumy region overnight, the Ukraine State of State Emergency Service announced on Saturday. Fires have been contained and no victim has been reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense systems had shot two Ukrainian drones during the night after Saturday.
___
Follow the coverage of war by the AP in Ukraine in https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
