Dozens of soldiers walk free in Russia-ukraine prisoner swap

KYIV: Dozens of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war have returned home following a prisoner swap, officials on both sides said on Saturday.

Top Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak said in a Telegram post that 116 Ukrainians were freed.

He said the released POWS include troops who held out in Mariupol during Moscow’s monthslong siege that reduced the southern port city to ruins, as well as guerrilla fighters from the Kherson region and snipers captured during the ongoing fierce batles for the eastern city of Bakhmut.

Russian defense officials, meanwhile, announced that 63 Russian troops had returned from Ukraine following the swap, including some “special category” prisoners whose release was secured following mediation by the UAE.

A statement issued on Saturday by the Russian Defence Ministry did not provide details about these “special category” captives.

At least three civilians have been killed in Ukraine over the past 24 hours as Russian forces struck nine regions in the country’s south, north and east, according to reports on Ukrainian TV by regional governors on Saturday morning.

Two people were killed and 14 others wounded in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region by Russian shelling and missile strikes, local Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a Telegram update on Saturday morning.

The casualty toll included a man who was killed and seven others who were wounded Friday ater Russian missiles slammed into Toretsk, a town in the Donetsk region. Kyrylenko said that 34 houses, two kindergartens, an outpatient clinic, a library, a cultural centre and other buildings were damaged in the strike.

Seven teenagers received shrapnel wounds ater an anti-personnel mine exploded late on Friday in the northeastern city of Izium, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. He said they were all hospitalised but their lives were not in danger.

Elsewhere, regional Ukrainian officials reported overnight shelling by Russia of border setlements 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 Russian forces seized early in the war, as a base for launching atacks on Ukrainian-held territory across the Dnieper river.

500,000 HOUSEHOLDS WITHOUT POWER: Elsewhere, Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa and surrounding areas were plunged into the dark following a large-scale network failure, the country’s grid operator reported.

“The situation is complex, the scale of the accident is significant,” Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on messaging app Telegram. He added that the substation had been “repeatedly” damaged as a result of Russian strikes.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the energy ministry was sending “all the powerful generators it has in stock” to Odesa “within 24 hours” and that both the Ukrainian energy minister and the head of Ukrenergo were on their way to Odesa to oversee repair works.

Odesa region governor Maksym Marchenko described the accident as “serious,” adding that the energy minister and the head of state-run electricity grid operator Ukrenergo had been sent to the city.

“A number of generators will be delivered to the region of Odesa within the next 24 hours,” he said. “We expect the first generators to arrive tonight.”

For months Moscow has systematically targeted Ukraine’s energy grid, leaving millions in the dark and cold in the middle of winter.

The Black Sea port of Odesa was a favourite holiday destination for many Ukrainians and Russians before President Vladimir Putin sent troops to pro-western Ukraine last February.

HEALTH EMERGENCY SPARKS US-RUSSIA ROW: The United States and Russia faced off on Saturday over a World Health Organisation (WHO) report on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, with Moscow saying it was politically motivated and Washington calling for it to be switly updated.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s report was presented to the organisation’s executive board, on which both Russia and the United States sit.

It covered events in the first nine months of 2022 and classed the situation in Ukraine, which Russia invaded on Feb.24, as one of eight acute global health emergencies.

The report documented more than 14,000 civilian casualties, with 17.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and 7.5 million Ukrainian refugees displaced across Europe.

Of 471 atacks with heavy weapons on healthcare facilities globally, 448 occurred in Ukraine, the WHO report said.

Russia’s representative to the WHO board called it politicised and one-sided and described its references to Ukraine as unfounded accusations.

Moscow has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine since it began what it calls a special military operation, which has also devastated Ukraine’s cities, killed thousands of combatants and shaken the global economy.