Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of actively recruiting fighters in China, which Moscow and Beijing deny. Ukraine’s leader earlier claimed 155 Chinese citizens were fighting for the Russian military. Meanwhile, a US-Russia prisoner swap has gone ahead.
Thursday 10 April 2025 18:00, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
That’s it for our updates on the war in Ukraine today.
It’s been a busy day – which included a prisoner exchange, more “coalition of the willing” talks in Brussels, and Zelenskyy ramping up his accusations about Russia recruiting fighters in China.
Make sure to scroll back through and check out the key points at the top of the page.
But our international coverage continues across Sky News. Tap below to follow the latest on Donald Trump’s tariffs and the ongoing fallout of his trade war with China.
Poland’s ambassador to Russia says a group of Russians tried to disrupt a small commemoration marking the 15th anniversary of the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 other people.
The protesters held banners and chanted anti-Polish slogans as ambassador Krzysztof Krajewski led the event in Smolensk, Russia, where the plane crashed on 10 April, 2010, he told RMF FM radio.
“They questioned everything, including the war in Ukraine. I heard slogans that were already familiar to me, that Poland is a sponsor of terrorism, that we are falsifying history,” Krajewski told the broadcaster.
The plane crash occurred when the presidential delegation was flying to Smolensk to pay tribute to some 22,000 Polish officers killed in the Katyn massacres by the Soviet secret police during the Second World War.
Russia’s refusal to hand over the wreckage to Poland after the crash engendered greater distrust in Vladimir Putin.
A Polish investigation carried out soon after the crash concluded that it was an accident resulting from pilot error and heavy fog.
Adam Boehler, who works for the Trump administration on hostage negotiations, has posted a photo on X showing US-Russian dual national Ksenia Karelina on a plane.
Karelina was released earlier today in a US-Russia prisoner swap, with German-Russian Arthur Petrov being released back to Moscow.
Boehler called Karelina a “beautiful ballerina” and credited the “A team” of Trump’s CIA director, his secretary of state Marco Rubio and security adviser Mike Waltz with securing her release, as well as the president himself.
As we’ve been reporting today, Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and the southern city of Mykolaiv overnight, injuring at least 12 people.
The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 85 out of 145
drones launched by Russia during its overnight attack.
Another 49 did not reach their targets.
Here are just a few of the scenes emerging from Ukraine today…
Fake cosmetics, massage pillows and sex toys. Crude homemade explosives. A Russian known as Warrior. A code word: Mary.
These are among the key elements of a suspected Russian-run sabotage plot that led to three parcels being detonated at courier depots in Birmingham, Leipzig in Germany, and Warsaw, Poland, on 19, 20 and 21 July 2024, a person with knowledge of the Polish investigation has told Reuters.
The pillows, packed into the parcels with the cosmetics and sex toys, contained hidden homemade incendiary devices, according to the person familiar with the case.
The chemicals were ignited by pre-timed detonators adapted from cheap Chinese electronic gadgets used to track items like lost keys, the source said.
Dry run for midair bomb plot?
“The proceedings in this case concern criminal activities inspired by Russia’s GRU,” this person said, referring to Moscow’s foreign military intelligence agency.
European security chiefs made the parcel fires public in October, describing them as part of a “hybrid war” being waged by Russia to destabilise countries that support Ukraine.
They said the parcels – which caught alight in warehouses, causing fires but not hurting anyone – were a dry run for a future Russian plot to detonate similar packages in midair on cargo flights to the US and Canada.
Clandestine park meeting with ‘Mary’
Polish investigators allege a Ukrainian named Vladyslav D, who lived in southern Poland, played a key role, acting on instructions he received on Telegram from a GRU handler whom he knew only as “Warrior”, a source said.
He is alleged to have prepared the parcels and then handed them over to a man in a park in Vilnius, Lithuania, who used the code word “Mary”, on 19 July, the source said, before the packages were posted to their targets.
Kremlin says plot allegations are ‘fake news’
Vladyslav has been charged with performing terrorist acts on behalf of Russian intelligence, which the national prosecutor’s office says he denies. He has apparently provided “extensive explanations” for his actions.
The Kremlin rejected the accusation of Russia having a hand in the fires as “fake news” or “Russophobia”.
By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent
The latest US-Russia prisoner swap is a further sign of the thawing relations between Moscow and Washington, but I think it’s also an indication of how slow things are moving.
Rewind two months to 11 February. You might remember there was another prisoner swap.
Out of the blue, 63-year-old American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who had been imprisoned in Russia on drug smuggling charges, was suddenly released and on his way home to the US.
It was part of a deal that had been secured following a secret trip to Moscow by US envoy Steve Witkoff, and it marked the first sign of movement towards a peace deal in Ukraine.
At the time, Donald Trump said it “could be a big important part” of ending the conflict. The president said it was a show of good faith from the Russians.
It also marked the first sign of rapprochement between the White House and the Kremlin.
Since then, there have been various face-to-face meetings between the two sides, at various levels.
There have been (at least two) phone calls between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
We’ve had talk of sanctions relief, business deals and the resumption of direct flights.
But it’s just that. Talk. There’s still nothing concrete, much to Donald Trump’s frustration, it seems.
Basic Istanbul talks show lack of progress
The latest round of US-Russia talks, in Istanbul today, is an example of the lack of progress.
Washington said the meeting would be solely focused on “embassy operations”.
That means issues like paying salaries (which has become harder under sanctions), diplomatic travel restrictions and the employment of external contractors like cleaners and gardeners (which Moscow currently forbids for the US mission here).
So for now, it’s still really basic stuff.
As the US State Department said yesterday, Ukraine is “absolutely not on the agenda”.
Russia in driving seat and prisoner swap is to keep US sweet
What’s striking is that a peace deal appears conditional on the reset of relations, rather than the other way around.
To me, that’s a sign that Russia is in the driving seat, and not the US.
Today’s prisoner exchange is part of all this.
Like February’s swap, I think it’s a show of goodwill, and an attempt by Moscow to keep the Americans sweet, after Vladimir Putin was accused of dragging his feet in negotiations.
It certainly shows Donald Trump that the relationship is moving in the right direction.
And, on a personal level, for Ksenia Karelina and her family, it is a hugely significant moment.
But on the geopolitical level, these are still just crumbs Russia is offering, not the whole cake.
Russian and US diplomats met today for another round of talks in Istanbul on improving diplomatic ties.
The US delegation left the Russian consulate building in central Istanbul this afternoon, some six hours after they arrived.
The Russian delegation remained in the building.
The discussions ended without statements from the delegations.
But ahead of the talks, both Moscow and Washington said the main focus was on normalising a bilateral relationship overall.
The talks were led by Russia’s new ambassador to Washington, Alexander Darchiev, and deputy assistant secretary of state Sonata Coulter, Russia’s foreign ministry also said.
“Ukraine is not, absolutely not on the agenda,” state department spokesperson US Tammy Bruce said beforehand.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia is conducting “systemic work” in China to recruit people for the war in Ukraine.
“It is obvious that these are not isolated cases, but systemic Russian work, in particular, on the territory and in the jurisdiction of China, to recruit citizens of this state for war,” he said in a statement on social media.
This follows his claim that approximately 155 Chinese citizens were fighting for the Russian military.
China called the claim “irresponsible”.
Photographs show Russian conscripts called up for military service ahead of their departure for garrisons.
Clad in military attire, they can be seen attending a ceremony before piling onto buses in Bataysk in the Rostov region.
They are some of the 160,000 men aged 18-30 called up by Vladimir Putin in Russia’s biggest conscription drive in 14 years.
“Clearly, Vladimir Putin does not seem to have any willingness to enter into a ceasefire and to start a peace negotiation,” French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot previously said of the conscriptions.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free