Liberation selects the most important news regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine.
49 Ukrainian POWs Return Home
They are part of an exchange between Kyiv and Moscow, the second since the start of the Ukrainian offensive in the Russian region of Kursk. “49 Ukrainians returned home”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed this Friday, accompanying his message on Telegram with photos of soldiers, including women, wrapped in Ukrainian blue and yellow flags. Some of them are veterans of Azovstal, a steel mill besieged by the Russian army in Mariupol (south-east of Ukraine) in the spring of 2022. Neither Volodymyr Zelensky nor the Russian authorities have yet given the details of the exchange and the number of Russians released. Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, the two belligerent countries have regularly exchanged prisoners. On June 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was holding 6,465 Ukrainian soldiers, compared to 1,348 Russian military prisoners in Ukraine. kyiv has not confirmed these figures.
Kursk offensive ‘slowed down’ Russian advance in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky says
The Ukrainian head of state also affirmed this Friday that the offensive launched in August in the Russian region of Kursk had the desired effect, slowing Russian advances in eastern Ukraine. “It has given the expected results. In the Kharkiv region (northeast), the enemy has been stopped, and its advance in the Donetsk region has been slowed down, even though it is very difficult there,” he said, assuring that Moscow had had to deploy 40,000 men in this Russian region bordering Ukraine. “There is still a long way to go,” The President, however, tempered the situation. On Thursday, the Russian army announced, for the first time since the Ukrainian offensive launched in early August, that it had regained ground in the Kursk region. Ukraine, for its part, confirmed a Russian counterattack, considering that it was “according to” to his plans.
Training of Ukrainian F-16 pilots begins in Romania
Ukrainian pilots began training on F-16s this week at a special center in Romania, as Kyiv seeks to accelerate the use of these valuable American fighters to repel Russian strikes. The first four servicemen have arrived and are currently taking courses “purely theoretical” before the start of “the practical phase at the end of the year”, said Constantin Spinu, spokesman for the Romanian Defense Minister, on Friday. Ukraine announced in early August that it had received its first F-16s from the West, which the country had been demanding relentlessly for two years. Some of its pilots are trained in other NATO countries, including France. But Romania, which occupies a strategic position at the gates of Ukraine and the Black Sea, wants to become “an international hub” for training.
Beijing calls for ‘negotiations’ to end war
Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said on Friday that the “negotiations” are the only solution to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, before a gathering of military leaders from around the world in Beijing, including Russia. Beijing has increasingly presented itself as a mediator in global conflicts, including by sending envoys to the Middle East, brokering a temporary ceasefire in northern Burma and last year facilitating a historic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran. On Ukraine and Israel-Palestine, China wants to present itself as a more neutral actor than the United States. “To resolve sensitive issues such as the crisis in Ukraine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the promotion of peace and negotiations is the only solution,” Dong Jun said.
