Ukrainian prisoners of war freed in an exchange with Russia, January 3, 2024 (Ukrinform)

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Wednesday’s Coverage: Latest Russian Strikes Kill 5 in Kyiv and Kharkiv

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1450 GMT:

A day after she was released by Russia in a POW exchange, Ukrainian combat medic Halyna Fedyshyn has been engaged to her partner, soldier Mykola Hrytsenyak.

UPDATE 1443 GMT:

Pro-Ukraine operatives appear to have set ablaze a Russian Su-34 fighter jet at an airbase inside Russia.

The Ukraine military intelligence service HUR posted a video of the burning jet, saying “the causes of the plane’s ignition are being determined”.

UPDATE 1433 GMT:

Vladimir Putin has issued a decree enabling foreign nationals who fight in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to obtain Russian citizenship for themselves and their spouses, children, and parents.

The foreigners must provide documents establishing that they signed up for military service for a minimum of one year with the Russian forces or with mercenary groups.

UPDATE 1427 GMT:

An automobile mechanic has been killed and eight other civilians wounded in a Russian missile strike on Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine.

Energy company buildings were damaged, cutting power and water supplies.

Governor Andriy Raikovych said Russia probably used an X-59 missile.

UPDATE 0836 GMT:

A cultural center in Porkhov in northwestern Russia has canceled dance parties for the foreseeable future.

The reason: a DJ played a song by Ukrainian drag performer Verka Serduchka, with the lyrics “Ukraine has not yet perished”, at a New Year’s party.

The center’s director, Anna Tarasenkova, apologized for the incident and said the DJ had played the song “without any malicious intent”. She assured that he would face consequences.

UPDATE 0739 GMT:

Russia continues to prevent inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency from seeing parts of the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine.

IAEA head Rafael Grossi reported on Wednesday that, for the first time, the experts have not been allowed into three of Zaporizhzhia’s six reactors to observe the core and spent fuel.

The Russians have refused the team’s request for entry for two weeks. “This is the first time that IAEA experts have not been granted access to a reactor hall of a unit that was in cold shutdown,” Grossi observed.

The Russians are still blocking access to parts of the complex’s turbine halls, including in three of the reactors, and denying the team from going onto rooftops.

Russia seized the nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, in the first days of its February 2022 invasion and turned it into a military base. Troops fire across the Dnipro River onto Ukrainian-controlled territory such as the city of Nikopol.

Five of the six reactors are in cold shutdown. The sixth is in “hot shutdown”, providing steam and heating for the nearby town of Enerhodar.

UPDATE 0720 GMT:

The toll from Russia’s missile attacks on December 29, the largest in the 22-month invasion, has risen to at least 48 killed.

Two more wounded civilians died in Kyiv on Wednesday, the 31st and 32nd fatalities in the capital from the strikes.

UPDATE 0708 GMT:

A Polish security official has said violation of Poland’s airspace by a Russian missile on December 29 — during Moscow’s largest aerial assault of its 22-month invasion of Ukraine — may have been intentional.

Jacek Siewiera spoke in a televised interview on Tuesday about the missile which travelled 40 km (25 miles) into Polish airspace before going off radars a few minutes later.

“[We] have enough information to confirm that this missile was launched from Russian systems,” he said.”It is difficult to assume that the crossing of 40 kilometers from the border was accidental.”

Asked if the incident was a provocation, Siewiera responded, “I can’t rule it out. The allies do not rule it out either.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine has announced the largest exchange of prisoners of war during Russia’s 22-month invasion, with the return of at least 230 soldiers from each side.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted about the deal, mediated by the UAE, on Wednesday night.

He noted that some of the returnees had fought in Mariupol, the port city in southeast Ukraine, and the Azovstal steel plant during the 12-week defense from February to May 2022 against constant Russian bombing, ground assaults, and siege.

Among the freed POWs is Mariupol defender Halyna Fedyshyn, the last female Marine held by the Russians; defenders of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, also overrun in the first days of the invasion; and seven troops from Zmiinyi (Snake) Island, where Ukrainian forces famously told attackers demanding surrender, “Russian warship, go fuck yourself”.

The Russian Defense Ministry said 248 POWs had been returned.

Last year, the UAE arranged an exchange of dozens of POWs, but there had been no swaps since early August.

Before Wednesday’s announcement, 2,576 Ukrainians had been freed in exchanges during the Russian invasion. More than 4,000 Ukrainian military personnel are believed to remain in captivity in Russia.

Ukrainian families often cannot get even basic information about the location and well-being of the POWs. Some have been given long prison sentences in “sham trials” denounced by human rights organizations. Those who have returned have detailed torture and abuse in captivity.