6 d. ago Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv repatriates more bodies of fallen soldiers amid major exchange with Russia

Ukraine says return in line with deal reached in Turkey while Russia hands over 1,200 bodies; Moscow claims capture of another Sumy village. What we know on day 1,207Ukraine has repatriated more bodies of fallen soldiers in accordance with an agreement reached during peace talks in Istanbul, Ukrainian officials said Friday. Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said Russia had returned 1,200 bodies, and “according to the Russian side, the bodies belong to Ukrainian citizens, in particular military personnel”. The repatriation of the bodies was carried out with the help of Ukraine’s armed forces, the country’s security service, the interior ministry and other government agencies, its statement said. Forensic experts would now work to identify the remains. The repatriation marks one of the war’s largest returns of remains.Russia says its forces have captured another village in Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region amid its ramped-up offensive there. M...

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1 week ago Russian soldiers 'play with decapitated heads of Ukrainians like it's football'

A Russian deserter has claimed Putin's troops play with the severed heads of Ukrainians like they are footballs, and recalled rumours of one ex-convict fighter accused of cannibalism

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2 w. ago ‘She lived without fear’: daughter of Chechen activist publishes book she vowed to pen after mother’s murder

Lana Estemirova promised to tell story of her mother, a renowned human rights activist. This month it is publishedLana Estemirova was 15 in 2009, when her mother, the renowned Chechen human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, was kidnapped and murdered. Bundled into a car as she walked to the bus stop on her way to work, she was driven out of town and then shot five times in the chest and head.The killing was widely seen as retribution for Estemirova’s fearless investigations of extrajudicial murders, kidnappings and human rights abuses in Chechnya, first by Russian soldiers and then by forces loyal to the Kremlin-appointed warlord, Ramzan Kadyrov. Nobody was ever prosecuted for the crime. Continue reading...

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3 w. ago Zelenskyy to meet Merz amid German wrangling over weapons go

Chancellor’s coalition partners opposing any moves to allow Ukraine to use long-range Taurus missilesZelenskyy bound for Berlin with Merz boxed inRussian air defences destroyed or intercepted more than 100 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions, including a swarm of drones heading for Moscow, officials said early on Wednesday, according to Reuters.Russia in the past week also sent waves of drones to attack Ukrainian cities, including what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as the launch of more than 900 drones over a three-day period ending early on Monday morning. Continue reading...

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3 w. ago AP PHOTOS: More than 200 Ukrainian POWs have died in Russian prisons. This is one soldier's story

“Everything will be all right.”

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3 w. ago More than 200 Ukrainian POWs have died in Russian prisons. This is one soldier's story

More than 200 Ukrainian POWs have died in Russian prisons since Moscow's full-scale invasion three years ago

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3 w. ago Hundreds of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers and civilians released in biggest prisoner swap of war

Russia and Ukraine had each agreed after two hours of peace talks in Istanbul last week to swap 1,000 prisoners

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3 w. ago Hundreds of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers released in biggest prisoner swap of war

Russia and Ukraine had each agreed after two hours of peace talks in Istanbul last week to swap 1,000 prisoners

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4 w. ago Militants kill 2 soldiers in attack on Russian air base in Syria

Militants attacked a Russian air base in Syria, killing two soldiers, a Syrian government official and a local activist have said

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4 w. ago Former Ukrainian presidential aide shot dead in Madrid – Europe live

Former politician Andriy Portnov advised the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych and had fled Ukraine in 2014For more background on Portnov, here is his profile as drafted by the US Treasury in 2021, when he was sanctioned on the International Anti-Corruption Day, no less.Andriy Portnov (Portnov), the former Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration under former President Yanukovych, has cultivated extensive connections to Ukraine’s judicial and law enforcement apparatus through bribery. Widely known as a court fixer, Portnov was credibly accused of using his influence to buy access and decisions in Ukraine’s courts and undermining reform efforts. Continue reading...

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