Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow and Kyiv’s 190 PoW swap ‘unexpected’ as North Korea troops arrive in Russia
It comes as thousands of North Korean troops arrive in Russia, according to South Korean intelligence
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Moscow and Kyiv released 95 prisoners of war (POWs) each in an “unexpected” prisoner swap on Friday.
The deal, in which 190 POWs were released in total, was brokered by the United Arab Emirates, according to AFP news agency.
Human rights activist and journalist Maksym Butkevych said the swap was a surprise, explaining that he thought he was being transported to a different prison.
“I didn’t know, it was unexpected,” he said. “Yesterday morning, after the inspection, they told me that I was leaving in half an hour, but they didn’t tell me where. Accordingly, I packed my things because I thought I was being transported, not for an exchange. We found out about the exchange by accident on the way. It was a double surprise.”
Confirming the news, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said: "Every time Ukraine rescues its people from Russian captivity, we get closer to the day when freedom will be returned to all who are in Russian captivity.”
It comes as the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a statement that Russian navy ships had transferred 1,500 North Korean special operation forces to the Russian port city of Vladivostok earlier this month.
Trump blames Zelensky and Biden – but not Putin – for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
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The alarming numbers behind North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal
Full report: Don’t tremble at Putin’s threats, Zelensky urges West
The free world “must not tremble” at Vladimir Putin’s threats, Volodymyr Zelensky has urged, as the Ukrainian president pressed for Nato and the EU to back his new “victory plan” to beat Russia.
In a hectic day of diplomacy in Brussels after unveiling the five-point plan he insists can end the war next year, Mr Zelensky sought to coalesce the support of Ukraine’s allies as he addressed European Union and Nato leaders in back-to-back meetings on Thursday.
With the plan hinging on the thorny issue of Nato membership for Ukraine, over which many of the military alliance’s member states are wary, Mr Zelensky underscored the test of allegiance facing Kyiv’s allies, declaring: “This plan doesn’t depend on Russian will, only on the will of our partners.”
Read more details in this report:
Don’t tremble at Putin’s threats, Ukraine urges West
Ukraine president sought vital backing from the EU and Nato in a hectic day of Brussels diplomacy
Watch: Trump blames Biden and Zelensky for Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Putin claims BRICS nations will generate most global economic growth
The BRICS group of nations will generate most of the global economic growth in the years ahead, Vladimir Putin has claimed as he seeks to show Western attempts to isolate Moscow have failed.
Mr Putin hopes to build up BRICS – which has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates as well as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – as a powerful counterweight to the West in global politics and trade.
Despite the International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest, he is due to host a BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan next week.
“The countries in our association are essentially the drivers of global economic growth. In the foreseeable future, BRICS will generate the main increase in global GDP,” Mr Putin told officials and businessmen at a BRICS business forum in Moscow.
“The economic growth of BRICS members will increasingly depend less on external influence or interference. This is essentially economic sovereignty,” he added.
Trump blames Zelensky for allowing Russia to invade Ukraine
Donald Trump has appeared to blame Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia’s invasion.
The Republican former president told the PBD Podcast on Thursday: “I think Zelensky’s one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen. Every time he comes in they give him a hundred billion dollars. Who else got that kind of money in history?
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start. The war’s a loser.”
‘Russia may be loud but Nato is strong,’ says alliance’s new chief
“Russia may be loud but Nato is strong”, the military alliance’s chief Mark Rutte has said, after chairing his first Nato defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels,
Condemning Vladimir Putin’s “increasingly irresponsible rhetoric”, Mr Rutte added that Nato allies were working hard to support Ukraine during the coming winter and that the main focus of the meeting was on getting massive military aid into Ukraine.
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