Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war – as it happened | Ukraine

Summary of the day

Rachel Hall

Here is the summary of the key developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict today:

• Russia and Ukraine have conducted a major prisoner of war exchange just one week after a previous swap was shelved when a Russian Il-76 transport plane was shot down. Russia and Ukraine both said that around 200 prisoners were exchanged on Wednesday, although the two sides disagreed about the exact figures.

• The EU expects to reach 52% of its target to send 1m rounds of shells to Ukraine by March this year, while the bloc plans to train another 20,000 soldiers, said the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell.

• Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said Russian troops were holding ground on the outskirts of the east Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, an embattled industrial hub.

• Ukraine claimed to have carried out another drone attack on an oil facility deep inside Russian territory, according to a military intelligence source.

• Vladimir Putin called for an international investigation into the downing last week of an Il-76 military transport plane in the Belgorod region on Russia’s border with Ukraine. The Russian president said that the plane had been struck with missiles fired from a US-supplied Patriot air defence system, which Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied.

• Olaf Scholz and four other European leaders admitted that the EU has “fallen short” of its goals to supply Ukraine with artillery ammunition on the eve of an emergency EU summit of EU leaders designed to break the deadlock between member states and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán over a €50bn aid package.

• The EU must show “clear commitment” to Ukraine, which needs more ammunition, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said before a meeting with EU defence ministers in Brussels.

• The Kremlin said that it was monitoring the situation around Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top military commander, after western and Ukrainian media outlets said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was trying to oust Zaluzhny.

• Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, told military manufacturers to “stop fooling around” and further increase the production of self-propelled artillery systems during a visit to arms-producing factories in the Urals.

• Ukraine’s air defences shot down 14 out of 20 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack that injured one person and damaged commercial buildings, the military has said.

  I’m closing the blog for the rest of the day, but we will be back tomorrow to bring you the latest updates. Thanks for following.

Ukraine carried out another drone attack on an oil facility deep inside Russian territory, a military intelligence source in Kyiv told AFP on Wednesday.

Kyiv has ramped up strikes on Russian oil and gas facilities over the past two months, part of what it has called “fair” retaliation for Russian strikes on its own energy infrastructure.

The claim comes after the governor of Saint Petersburg said there had been a loud blast at an industrial site outside the northern city.

Local media meanwhile reported that S-400 missiles systems had shot at a drone that crashed on an oil storage facility in the Nevsky district.

“It was a GUR operation,” the source told AFP referring to Ukraine’s military intelligence services. The source said the target was used for “military purposes”.

The EU expects to reach 52% of its target to send 1m rounds of shells to Ukraine by March this year, according to the latest production data compiled by the commision, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said on Wednesday.

Speaking after an EU ministers’ meeting in Brussels, Josep Borrell also said EU countries plan to train another 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers, on top of 40,000 already trained.

Ukraine’s ground forces commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, was offered the job of replacing his boss Valeriy Zaluzhnyi as commander of the armed forces, but declined, a source familiar with the matter has told Reuters.

Ukrainian media reported that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked Gen Zaluzhnyi, head of the Ukrainian army, to step aside this week, but that he refused.

His exit as army chief would represent a huge shake-up in the Ukrainian military, which is fending off multiple Russian attacks in the east as uncertainty grows over the future of vital US and European Union support.

The source, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, was unable to say exactly how or when the job offer was communicated to Syrskyi.

The Ukrainian general staff and president’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ukrainian media tipped Syrskyi and military spy chief Kyrylo Budanov as two possible successors to Zaluzhnyi.

Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said Wednesday Russian troops were holding ground on the around the east Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, an embattled industrial hub.

Agence France-Presse reports:

Russia launched a costly bid in October to seize the town, that has been caught up in fighting since 2014 after it briefly fell to Moscow-backed separatists.

Putin said in a televised event that Moscow’s forces “broke through the enemy’s defenses and reached the outskirts of Avdiivka.”

They captured 19 houses and are holding them.

The mayor of Avdiivka told AFP last week that Russian forces entered the war-battered town for the first time, but were pushed back.

Russian forces control territory to the north, east and south of Avdiivka, which had a pre-war population of around 32,000 people.

Ukraine has said its forces were fending off attacks and holding out against Russia’s efforts to surround the town.

The capture of Avdiivka would provide a much needed victory for Russia to bring home as the second anniversary of its offensive and the March presidential election approaches.

The international court of justice (ICJ) on Wednesday found Russia had violated some parts of a UN anti-terrorism treaty by not investigating financial support for separatist groups in eastern Ukraine in 2014, but did not order compensation as requested by Ukraine.

The United Nations’ top court declined to rule specifically on alleged Russian responsibility for the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, as Kyiv had asked it to do.

The ICJ also ruled that Russia had violated the UN anti-discrimination treaty by failing to protect education in the Ukrainian language in Crimea.

Enrolment in education in the Ukrainian language plummeted after Russia in 2014 declared that it had annexed Crimea from Ukraine, the UN’s top court said.

The court did not, however, grant Ukraine the compensation it had demanded from Russia, and rejected other claims of discrimination against ethnic Tatars and Ukrainians after the annexation.

Vladimir Putin has called for an international investigation into the downing last week of an Il-76 military transport plane in the Belgorod region on Russia’s border with Ukraine.

The Russian president said that the plane had been struck with missiles fired from a US-supplied Patriot air defence system.

Moscow accuses Kyiv of downing the Ilyushin Il-76 plane and of killing 74 people on board, including 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers it said were en route to be swapped for Russian prisoners of war.

Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied that it downed the plane, and has demanded proof of who was on board.

Andrew Roth

Russia and Ukraine have conducted a major prisoner-of-war exchange just one week after a previous swap was scuttled when a Russian Il-76 transport plane was shot down and exploded in a fiery crash along the border, writes the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, Andrew Roth.

Russia and Ukraine both said that around 200 prisoners were exchanged on Wednesday, although the two sides disagreed about the exact figures. Ukraine said that it had returned 207 of its personnel in the swap, while Russia said that each side had handed over “exactly” 195 POWs.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote on Telegram:

Our people are back. 207 of them. We return them home no matter what.

He published photos showing Ukrainian soldiers hugging, making telephone calls, and crying after the swap. Many were holding yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags.

Zelenskiy continued:

We remember each Ukrainian in captivity. Both warriors and civilians. We must bring all of them back. We are working on it. The Ukrainian team has done another excellent job.

Russia’s defence ministry released a statement in which it confirmed the swap and said that “exactly 195 Ukrainian Armed Forces prisoners of war have been handed over” for the return of 195 captured Russian soldiers.

President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would continue such exchanges and that Kyiv had indicated it was open to more.

Wednesday’s swap showed an unexpectedly quick return to prisoner exchanges after Russia accused Ukraine of shooting down an Il-76 transport plane last week shortly before a similar swap was set to take place.

Russia said that there were Ukrainian POWs on board the plane and accused Ukraine of intentionally targeting the flight. But Moscow has not released proof that there were prisoners aboard the plane or a confirmed flight manifest. Ukraine said it had no information about prisoners aboard the plane but confirmed plans for a swap and accused Russia of putting its servicemen at risk before the swap. Both sides have ordered an investigation into the crash.