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Russia cancels prisoner swap at last minute, says Ukraine
Russia cancelled a scheduled exchange of prisoners of war on Saturday at the last minute, the Ukrainian body dealing with prisoners said.
The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said on Telegram:
Another round of exchange of prisoners was planned today with the Russian side. However, it was cancelled at the last moment at the initiative of the Russian side.
Reuters also reported that the office of the Russian human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russia and Ukraine have conducted numerous prisoner swaps – most recently on 8 January – amounting to hundreds of captives each in the course of the war.
On Saturday Moskalkova posted on Telegram that Russian soldiers had allegedly reported instances of extortion while in Ukrainian captivity.
Ukrainian energy facilities operator Ukrenergo said it was working on “eliminating the consequences” of the latest Russian strikes.
Agence France-Presse reported that in Kyiv, its journalists heard several explosions, while Ukrainian officials reported strikes on a power facility.
The Kyiv city administration said:
There is a hit to an infrastructure facility, without critical destruction or fire.
In the north-eastern Kharkiv region, “the enemy launched another missile attack on critical infrastructure and industrial facilities”, said the governor, Oleg Synegubov.
Emergency blackouts were applied in “most regions” of Ukraine due to the fresh barrage of attacks, the energy minister, German Galushchenko, said on Saturday.
Attacks were also reported in the southern Zaporizhzhia region in south-eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine had shot down 20 of the more than 30 Russian missiles fired.
“Unfortunately, energy infrastructure facilities have been also hit,” with the Kharkiv and Kyiv regions suffering the most, he said.
Ukrainian rescuers in Dnipro were also working through the night to free a woman trapped under the rubble of a destroyed house after hearing her voice, the state emergency service said.
A Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the south-central Ukrainian city destroyed dozens of flats, leaving between 100 and 200 people homeless, said the Ukrainian presidency’s deputy head, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Agence France Presse reported.
About 1,700 were without electricity and heating, he said.
At least 14 people were killed in Russia’s attack on Dnipro on Saturday, Ukrainian authorities said.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine. It’s day 326 – this is Adam Fulton.
In our top story at it approaches 9am in Kyiv, at least 14 people were killed and 64 injured at an apartment block hit during a wave of Russian missile attacks across Ukraine on Saturday afternoon as it celebrated the Old New Year holiday. Rescue efforts at the devastated block in the south-central city of Dnipro continued overnight after the strikes – Russia’s biggest wave in a fortnight – which Ukrainian officials said had targeted the country’s energy infrastructure.
The Dnipropetrovsk region’s governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, was reported as saying on Telegram early on Sunday that about 38 people had been rescued, two dozen were missing and an unknown number remained trapped in the debris.
In other recent developments:
The UK prime minister has confirmed the country will provide tanks to Ukraine to help Kyiv’s forces “push Russian troops back”. Downing Street said Rishi Sunak made the pledge during a call on Saturday morning with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and that Sunak offered Challenger 2 tanks and additional artillery systems as a sign of the UK’s “ambition to intensify our support to Ukraine”. Russia’s embassy in Britain said the move would only “intensify” the conflict.
Emergency power outages were enacted across 11 regions of Ukraine after the Russian strikes on energy infrastructure. In a post on Telegram, grid operator Ukrenegro said the consumption limits in force across the country were exceeded in 11 regions, as a result of which “emergency shutdowns have been applied”.
Four explosions were heard in central Kyiv on Saturday morning. For the first time since Russia began regular missile and drone attacks on the capital in autumn, the air raid sirens sounded after the attack. Until now, the sirens have sounded 10-90 minutes before an attack, giving residents time to seek shelter.
Air raid alerts were also issued across the country, including in the major cities of Kherson and Lviv. Alerts were also issued for the regions of Kharkiv, Donestk, Dnipropetrovsk and about a dozen others.
Ukraine has called on its allies to give it more support after its troops suffered heavy losses in fighting at Soledar and Bakhmut in recent months. Russia said on Friday its forces had taken control of Soledar in east Ukraine, its first claim of victory in months of battlefield setbacks, while Kyiv said fierce fighting was continuing in the town. “To win this war, we need more military equipment, heavy equipment,” said Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Agence France-Presse reported.
Moldovan authorities said debris from a missile had been found in its territory near the border with Ukraine. They said on Saturday the find came “after Russia’s massive bombardment of Ukraine” and that it was the third time missiles from the conflict had fallen on to Moldova’s territory.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has accused the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, of shameful subservience to the US and suggested he should ritually disembowel himself. His remarks on Saturday were the latest in a long line of shocking and provocative statements from arch-hawk Medvedev, Reuters reported. Speaking later on Saturday, a day after a summit with the US president, Joe Biden, Kishida made no mention of Medvedev’s comment
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