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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the return of 189 POWs as ‘very good news’
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Ukraine and Russia carried out a new exchange of prisoners of war on Monday, with Kyiv bringing home 189 former captives.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the United Arab Emirates and other partners for facilitating the swap.
“The return of our people from Russian captivity is always very good news for each of us. And today is one of such days: our team managed to bring 189 Ukrainians home,” Mr Zelensky said.
Russia’s defence ministry said that 150 Russian soldiers were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people.
Meanwhile, 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.”
Ukrainian families sobbed as they reunited with loved ones in a prisoner of war (POW) swap with Russia on Monday, 30 December.
Among them were soldiers captured by Russia from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Snake island and other parts of the front line, as well as two civilians.
Volodymyr Zelensky said the two countries exchanged 189 prisoners of war each in an exchange mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
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China’s president Xi Jinping said China and Russia have always moved forward “hand in hand” along the right path of non-alliance, non-confrontation, and not targeting any third party, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday.
In an exchange of New Year greetings with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Mr Xi also said that mutual trust and strategic coordination between both countries continues to reach higher levels under their leadership.
—Reuters
If the last 25 years have taught us anything, it is exactly who the Russian president is – and what he is capable of:
Editorial: 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.
Read more here:
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that released hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates
— AP
Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Ukraine, during an air raid alert on Tuesday, according to a Reuters witness.
Crisis has aided the Russian strongman’s regime stability far more than any index of economic success, writes Mark Almond
When Boris Yeltsin suddenly resigned as Russia’s first post-communist president on New Year’s Eve, 1999, his country seemed to be spiralling downhill into economic and political disintegration. Few gave his largely unknown successor as acting president much chance of reversing the economic implosion or remaining in office for long.
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.
But Putin’s rise over the years owed more to bureaucratic infighting skills than any dark espionage arts, or even the judo skills which he would at one time display in front of loyal cameras.
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:
Crisis has aided the Russian strongman’s regime stability far more than any index of economic success, writes Mark Almond
Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom says it will halt gas supplies to Moldova starting on Jan. 1, citing alleged unpaid debt by the east European country
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.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says he will implement the “toughest” anti-U.S. policy, less than a month before Donald Trump takes office as U.S. president
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