Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin minister issues recession warning while Russia admits massive losses on frontline – UK Times

Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war, officials from both countries said, the latest round of swaps under an agreement struck in Istanbul.

President Volodymyr Zelensky posted images of the freed Ukrainian troops, smiling and draped in the national flag, most of whom had been held captive since the early months of Russia’s February 2022 invasion, he said.

The Ukrainian POWs exchanged yesterday were either sick or injured, according to Kyiv’s coordinating council for POWs. The Russian POWs would also be sent for treatment and rehabilitation, Moscow’s defence ministry said.

Neither Ukraine nor Russia, whose talks on ending the war have yielded few results besides the exchange of prisoners or remains, provided an exact figure of how many POWs had been exchanged.

North Korea is sending 5,000 military construction workers and 1,000 sappers to Russia’s Kursk oblast, where Moscow is repairing widespread damage from a Ukrainian incursion, according to a top Kremlin official.

Presidential security adviser Sergei Shoigu said the workers would help rebuild the strategic border region, which was invaded by the Ukrainian military last August and retaken by Russian forces earlier this year.

The dispatch of the workers was discussed in Mr Shoigu’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, state media outlet KCNA reported on Wednesday.

South Africa formally invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the G20 summit, a Russian diplomat has claimed.

“Last week, we received an official invitation. This is an appeal from the head of state, the president of South Africa (Cyril Ramaphosa), to his colleagues,” Russian Ambassador-at-large Marat Berdyev told state-owned media outlet RIA.

The summit will take place in Johannesburg from November 22 to 23.

However, South Africa is a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), meaning it is obliged to arrest Mr Putin on arrival. An arrest warrant was issued for the Russian leader in March 2023 over allegations of illegal deportation of Ukrainian children during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Spain has rejected a Nato proposal to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence needs set to be unveiled next week, claiming it is “unreasonable.”

In a letter sent yesterday to Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said that Spain “cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP”.

His comments reveal divisions in the bloc ahead next week’s Nato summit in The Hague.

“For Spain, committing to a 5 per cent target would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive, as it would move Spain away from optimal spending and it would hinder the EU’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its security and defence ecosystem,” Mr Sanchez wrote in the letter seen by The Associated Press.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine cannot resume operations until challenges related to the availability of cooling water and off-site power are fully resolved, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said.

“Based on the discussions at the site this week, it is clear that there is a general consensus among all parties that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant cannot start operating again as long as this large-scale war continues,” the UN nuclear watchdog said in a statement.

Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant (NPP) situated in Ukraine’s east, has not been generating electricity for almost three years now, and its location on the frontline of the conflict continues to put nuclear safety in constant jeopardy, the IAEA said.

“Its off-site power situation also remains extremely fragile, with only one power line currently functioning compared with ten before the conflict. In addition, the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in mid-2023 means the ZNPP does not have sufficient water to cool six operating reactors,” the statement yesterday added.

A German general dismissed repeated warnings by Russian president Vladimir Putin that delivering Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine might make it party to the war as “nonsense”.

“It is obviously nonsense and not correct that military aid – and this discussion has been going on for three years now – would constitute direct participation in the war,” Major-General Christian Freuding, who is in charge of coordinating German military aid to Kyiv, told public broadcaster ZDF.

A meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump is not currently on the table, the Kremlin has said.

“Until the necessary ‘homework’ is done to remove the irritants in our relations with the United States, it makes no sense to organize a meeting,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

The US President has repeatedly raised the issue of meeting with Mr Putin, saying it would help accelerate efforts to end the war in Ukraine. However, the pair have not met since he began his second presidency in January.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to attend the Nato summit in The Hague later this month, according to reports.

A source in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP that Mr Zelensky would attend the summit, scheduled for June 24-25.

“The decision will be made on the eve of the summit. This is just the schedule,” the source said.

They described the meeting as “an opportunity to maintain support and promote a ceasefire”.

Ukrainian presiden Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed Hennadiy Shapovalov as commander of Ukraine’s land forces, replacing a commander who resigned over a Russian strike on a training area.

Mr Shapovalov, whose appointment was announced in a presidential decree, had previously acted as a liaison at a Nato coordination centre in Germany. Before that, he has served as commander of the forces of the Operational Command South.

Mr Zelensky, speaking later in his nightly video address, said the incoming military chief’s experience in working with Nato would be put to good use in introducing changes in Ukraine’s forces.

“All this useful experience of this coordination and all the real combat experience of our soldiers must be applied now within Ukraine’s land forces,” he said.

“Changes are needed and this is an imperative.”

Mr Shapovalov takes over as head of land forces from Mykhailo Drapatyi, who tendered his resignation this month after a deadly Russian strike on a training camp in southeastern Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky reassigned Drapatyi to the post of commander of the joint forces as part of a military shakeup.