Russia presses towards Kurakhove in east as Ukrainians hold the line: Kiev

Russian forces have focused their assaults in eastern Ukraine near the embattled town of Kurakhove as Ukrainian troops tried to hold the line at a critical juncture of the war, Kiev said.

The Russians on Friday also pressed towards Ukraine's rail hub of Pokrovsk, about 33 km (20 miles) north of Kurakhove, in an attempt to open new lines of attack, disrupt Ukrainian logistics, and take control of the rest of the eastern Donetsk region.

Russian forces have taken control of the village of Dolynivka in the eastern Donetsk region, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has praised his troops for holding their positions in Pokrovsk and Kurakhove, the two most difficult sectors in the east.

Ukraine's forces are stretched thin but the military said they had repelled 64 assaults near Kurakhove in the past day, the most intense fighting there this month.

The Ukrainian military also reported repelling 36 attacks near Pokrovsk on the same day.

Together, the action on these fronts accounted for more than two-thirds of about 140 clashes reported along over 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) of front lines in the country's northeast, east and south in the last day.

Kiev launched a cross-border assault into Russia's Kursk region in early August in the hope of diverting forces from the eastern front.

The Ukrainians made rapid initial gains before stalling, while the situation around Pokrovsk has remained perilous.

In Ukraine's northern Sumy region, a Russian-guided bomb attack on Friday killed two people and injured six others, including a four-year-old child, local authorities said.

Ukraine used Sumy, which borders Kursk, as a staging ground for its incursion into Russia in August.

The settlement of Yampil, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border, was hit with four guided bombs, Sumy regional prosecutors said on Telegram. The attack damaged residential houses and a clinic, and cut power supplies, the regional military administration said.

POW exchange

Meanwhile, Ukraine has also secured the release of 49 people from Russian captivity in the latest exchange of prisoners with Moscow, Zelenskyy said.

The latest swap was mediated by the United Arab Emirates, a spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence agency said.

"Another return of our people - something we always wait for and work tirelessly to achieve... We must bring home every single one of our people, both military and civilian," Zelenskyy said on X, announcing the 56th such swap with Russia.

Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on the Telegram messaging app the Ukrainians released included seven civilians as well as personnel from the armed forces, national guard, police and the border guard service.

Ukraine did not say how many Russians had been released. Moscow is yet to comment on the swap.

Video footage released by Ukraine from an undisclosed location showed service personnel being greeted with flowers, hugs and leaflets saying: "Thank you for enduring it all". One released prisoner held the leaflet to his heart and wept.

Kiev and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since Russia's full-scale offensive, and Friday's swap was the second since Ukraine began a cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk region in early August.

Ukraine said its troops had captured at least 600 Russian soldiers during the incursion, and that this would help it secure the return of captured Ukrainians.

Yermak said that some of Ukrainians released had taken part in the defence of Mariupol and the Azovstal steel plant in the southern port city, which had been under siege in fierce fighting and is now occupied by Russian troops.

Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said Ukraine had now secured the return of 3,569 people from Russian captivity since the start of the invasion.