Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow and Kyiv’s 190 PoW swap ‘unexpected’ as North Korea troops arrive in Russia

Four firefighters in an industrial zone in Dzerzhinsk in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region received minor shrapnel wounds from a Ukrainian drone attack, the region’s governor said on Sunday.

“They were given the necessary medical care, everyone was sent home,” Gleb Nikitin said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Russian RIA agency reported that Russian air defence systems destroyed 110 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, including eight over Nizhny Novgorod region, some 400 km east of Moscow.

French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot pledged his support for Ukraine’s plan for ending the 2 1/2-year war with Russia, telling reporters in Kyiv on Saturday that he will work with Ukrainian officials to secure other nations’ backing for the proposal.

Unveiled by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this week, Kyiv’s so-called “victory plan” hopes to compel Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine through negotiations.

The proposal is being considered by Ukraine’s Western partners, whose help is vital for Kyiv to resist its bigger neighbor. A key element would be a formal invitation into NATO, which Western backers have been reluctant to consider until after the war ends.

Defence ministers of the G7 countries have pledged “unwavering support” for Ukraine in a statement on Saturday.

“We underscore our intent to continue to provide assistance to Ukraine, including military assistance in the short and long term,” in its conflict with Russia, the ministers said after their meeting in Naples.

The statement added that they supported Ukraine’s “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including Nato membership”.

Ukraine launched a series of drones targeting Moscow and western Russia, regional officials said on Sunday.

No injuries or significant damage was reported.

Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said on the Telegram messaging app that Russia’s air-defence units destroyed at least one drone flying towards the Russian capital, reported Reuters.

Some drone debris led to multiple short-lived fires in the Lipetsk region in southwestern Russia, the mayor reported on Telegram, adding that there were no injuries.

Ukraine’s accession to NATO would make a diplomatic and political resolution to the conflict impossible, Russia’s foreign ministry said according to the RIA state-owned news agency.

It would ultimately lead to an escalation in the war, the ministry said on Saturday morning.

Ukrainian president Zelensky has been pushing hard in recent months for the war-torn country’s accession to NATO to be guaranteed. He went on a whirlwind tour to present his ‘victory plan’ to allies in the West, including US president Joe Biden and UK prime minister Keir Starmer, which puts NATO accession front-and-centre of any possible Ukrainian victory.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has shared a video of the moment Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) returned home to their families.

In a post on X, he said: “95 of our people are home again. These are the warriors who defended Mariupol and ‘Azovstal’, as well as the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Kherson regions.

“Each time Ukraine rescues its people from Russian captivity, we bring closer the day when freedom will be returned to all those still held in Russian captivity.

“I thank the team involved in finding and liberating prisoners. We are doing everything to bring back all of our people held by Russia. I am grateful to the warriors who replenish the exchange fund and to all our partners who help us.”

South Korea’s spy agency said on Friday that North Korea has sent 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s Far East for training and acclimatisation at local military bases, likely to be deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine, reported Reuters.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said it had been working with Ukraine’s intelligence service and identified North Korean officers in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region using facial recognition artificial intelligence technology.

“The direct military cooperation between Russia and North Korea that has been reported by foreign media has now been officially confirmed,” the spy agency said in a statement.

Joe Biden has urged the West to sustain its support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion as Kyiv faces a third winter of full-scale war.

Speaking to reporters before holding closed-door talks with chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin to discuss matters ranging from Ukraine to the expanding conflict in the Middle East, Mr Biden said: “As Ukraine faces a tough winter, we must, we must sustain our resolve.

“And I know the cost is heavy, but make no mistake, it bears in comparison to the cost of living in a world where aggression prevails, where large states attack and bully smaller ones simply because they can.”

He said he would discuss with Mr Scholz efforts to increase military support for Ukraine and shore up its civilian energy infrastructure “by unlocking the value of frozen Russian assets”.