Live blog: Russia, Ukraine exchange POWs after UAE mediation

Wednesday, January 3, 2023

1750 GMT –– Ukraine and Russia announced their first exchange of prisoners of war for nearly five months, with more than 200 freed by each side after what Moscow said was a complex negotiation involving mediation by the United Arab Emirates.

Russia's Defence Ministry said Ukraine had handed over 248 military personnel. Kiev said it had brought home 230 people - 224 soldiers and six civilians - in what it said had been the largest documented swap of troops so far.

Despite the lack of any dialogue on how to end the 22-month war, Kiev and Moscow have held many prisoner swaps since the early months of Russia's military offensive in February 2022. But the rate of the exchanges dropped in 2023 and the last one took place in early August.

More updates👇

1737 GMT –– Speaker Johnson leads House GOP on a trip to a Texas border city as Ukraine aid hangs in the balance

US House Speaker Mike Johnson is leading about 60 fellow Republicans in Congress on a visit to the Mexican border as they demand hard-line immigration policies in exchange for backing President Joe Biden's emergency wartime funding request for Ukraine. The trip to Eagle Pass, Texas, comes as Senate negotiators keep plugging away in hopes of a bipartisan deal.

With the number of illegal crossings into the United States topping 10,000 on several days last month, the border city has been at the centre of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, his nearly $10 billion initiative that has tested the federal government’s authority over immigration and elevated the political fight over the issue.

An agreement in the lengthy talks in Washington would unlock GOP support for Biden's $110 billion package for Ukraine, Israel and other US security priorities. In meetings, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz, James Lankford, R-Okla., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., are trying to make progress before Congress returns to Washington next week.

1507 GMT –– Russian attacks kill three in Ukraine

Russian strikes near the southern and eastern Ukrainian frontline on Wednesday killed three and wounded one, local officials said.

The assaults came two days after Moscow vowed to intensify strikes on Ukraine following an unprecedented attack on the Russian city of Belgorod over the weekend.

The strikes on Belgorod followed particularly massive attacks on Ukraine, pointing to an escalation on both sides.

"Today, at around 11 am (0900 GMT), Russians struck the city of Avdiivka with four missiles," Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said in a Telegram message.

"A 51-year-old man died on the spot," he said, adding that a 50-year-old woman was wounded and taken to hospital.

Avdiivka lies close to the Russian-controlled stronghold of Donetsk and has been the focus of intense fighting for months.

Russian shelling also killed two people in villages on the Ukrainian-controlled western bank of the Dnipro river in Kherson region, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said.

1449 GMT –– Norway to send 2 F-16s to Denmark for Ukraine pilot training

Norway's government said it would send two F-16 fighter jets to Denmark to help train Ukrainian pilots in the use of the planes, which are highly anticipated by Kiev.

Last year, Norway, along with countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands, said that it would be donating F-16s –– that had been retired to be replaced with the more modern F-35 –– to Ukraine.

However, Oslo has yet to announce either the number of F-16s to be donated –– expected to be just a handful –– or a delivery schedule.

"Allied partners and states will work day and night with the goal of establishing a lasting and modern air force for Ukraine," Norway's Defence Minister Bjorn Arild Gram said in a statement.

The Scandinavian country is already supplying training personnel, with around 10 instructors.

The Norwegian F-16s will be deployed, for an as of yet undetermined period, to the Danish Skrydstrup air base –– where Ukrainian pilots are trained as part a multinational operation.

In his New Year's address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country's "pilots are already mastering F-16 jets, and we will definitely see them in our skies," as he vowed that Russian forces would feel Ukraine's "wrath" in 2024.

1339 GMT –– Ukraine needs 'stable' aid from West to keep economy afloat: ministry

Ukraine's prime minister has said Kiev counted on Western allies' steady financial support, estimating it needed around $37 billion this year.

The announcement comes as uncertainties surround EU and US aid to Ukraine, with both major allies mired in political divisions.

"This year's needs exceed $37 billion. We count on regular, stable and timely assistance from partners," Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said at a government meeting.

In comparison, Ukraine received $42.6 billion in external financing in 2023, 27 percent of which was donations, he said. Shmygal listed the European Union, the United States, the International Monetary Fund, Japan, Canada, Britain and the World Bank as Ukraine's main backers.


But an EU aid package worth 50 billion euros ($55 billion) has been stuck in Brussels by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, while the US Congress remains divided on sending additional aid to Ukraine.

1207 GMT –– Ukraine, India agree to hold 1st inter-governmental commission meeting since 2018: Ukrainian FM

Ukraine and India agreed to hold a meeting of the inter-governmental commission on cooperation in various fields, the first since 2018, the Ukrainian foreign minister said.

Dmytro Kuleba also said that he and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar discussed further cooperation on the Ukrainian Peace Formula presented by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the G-20 summit in Indonesia in November 2022.

The phone conversation between Kuleba and Jaishankar came days after the latter paid an official visit to Russia late last month.

Ukraine and India last held a sixth session of the India-Ukraine Inter-Governmental Commission in Kiev in February 2018.


The session addressed bilateral cooperation in the trade, economic, scientific, technical, industrial and cultural fields.

0929 GMT — EU adds Russia's top diamond producer Alrosa to sanctions list

The European Union has added Russia's Alrosa, the world's biggest diamond producer, as well as its CEO Pavel Alekseevich Marinychev to its sanctions list, it has said.

"In line with the diamond ban we have introduced with the 12th package of sanctions, the EU today lists Alrosa, the largest diamond-mining company in the world, and its CEO," EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on social media platform X.

The EU's diamond ban is done in coordination with the Group of Seven countries (G7), which announced a similar ban in December.

0917 GMT — Russian border regions and Crimea hit by new Ukrainian attacks

Crimea and two Russian regions neighbouring Ukraine saw another wave of attacks, local officials have said, a day after Kiev was hit by massive bombardment and amid intensifying aerial attacks on both sides.

"The situation in Belgorod continues to be tense. There were two attacks in the morning," the governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Russian air defence said it destroyed six missiles over the Belgorod region, which has been repeatedly struck throughout the conflict.

One person was killed and eleven injured the day before, Gladkov said.

0710 GMT — Poland says West should give Ukraine long-range missiles

The West should tighten sanctions against Russia and provide Kiev with long-range missiles in response to Moscow's latest shelling of Ukraine, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said.

Russia pounded Ukraine's two biggest cities on Tuesday in a new wave of heavy air strikes that killed at least five civilians and prompted calls for the West to quickly provide more military assistance.

"We should respond to the latest onslaught on Ukraine in language that Putin understands: by tightening sanctions so that he cannot make new weapons with smuggled components and by giving Kiev long-range missiles that will enable it to take out launch sites and command centres," Sikorski wrote on social media platform X.

0316 GMT — Ukraine launches drone attack at Russia's Belgorod: governor

Ukraine launched a drone attack on Russia's Belgorod, the governor of the region bordering Ukraine has said.

He also added that several drones were destroyed on approach to the city of Belgorod, the administrative centre of the region.

Separately Russian defence ministry has said that its air defence systems destroyed a total of 12 Ukraine-launched missiles over the Belgorod region.

2149 GMT — Russia says downed Ukrainian missile over Sevastopol

Russia's air defence systems have destroyed a Ukraine-launched missile over the Crimean port of Sevastopol, the Russia-backed governor of the city said on the Telegram messaging app.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-backed governor of Sevastopol, said that there was no damage or casualties as a result of the attack.

Several Russian news-monitoring Telegram channels reported that there was a series of loud explosions over different parts of Sevastopol.

2128 GMT — France condemns strikes on Ukraine

France has condemned recent missile and drone strikes on Ukraine, saying "Russia alone bears responsibility for this escalation."

"France utterly condemns the massive wave of Russian missile and drone strikes against Ukraine that left at least 4 dead and 92 injured in the city and region of Kiev and in the city of Kharkiv," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Russia, it said, launched nearly 100 missiles and dozens of drones across Ukraine and continues to destroy Ukraine's civilian infrastructure "in order to weaken the resilience of the Ukrainian people."

"Russia alone bears responsibility for this escalation, which has no justification whatsoever and which primarily affects civilians," it noted.

The Foreign Ministry reiterated that France will continue to work closely with its partners to bolster Ukrainian resilience and to provide Ukraine with the support it needs.

1800 GMT — Russia hit Ukraine with '300 missiles, 200 drones' in 72 hours

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed that Russia used 300 missiles and 200 drones in attacks over three days.

"Since the beginning of today, there have been almost 100 missiles of various types, and the trajectories have been specially calculated by the enemy to cause as much damage as possible," Zelenskyy said in his new address on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"This is absolutely conscious terror. In just a few days — these last days, from December 29 till today — Russia has already used almost 300 missiles and more than 200 drones against Ukraine," he said.

"No other country so far has repelled similar attacks by combined drones and missiles, including aeroballistic ones. Today alone 10 Kinzhal missiles were shot down."

Zelenskyy warned that if Ukraine fails, "Russian terror" will further spread throughout Europe.

For our live updates from Tuesday, January 2, click here.