War in Ukraine: Zelensky ready to exchange prisoners, Moscow claims two localities… update on the situation

Zelensky proposes exchange between North Korean and Ukrainian prisoners

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that kyiv was ready to hand over North Korean prisoners of war to leader Kim Jong-Un if the latter could arrange an exchange with Ukrainian prisoners in Russia.

Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday that the Ukrainian army had captured two North Korean soldiers in the Russian region of Kursk, a first since the deployment last fall of some 10,000 soldiers sent by the Pyongyang regime.

“Ukraine is ready to hand over its soldiers to Kim Jong-un if he can organize their exchange for our fighters who are detained in Russia,” the Ukrainian president said in a message on the social network X on Sunday. “In addition to the first North Korean soldiers captured, there will undoubtedly be more. It is only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture more,” he said.

Volodymyr Zelensky added that other options could be considered for North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return to their country. “Those who express their desire to promote peace by exposing the truth about this war in Korean will be granted this opportunity.”he said.

The Russian army says it has conquered two localities on the Eastern Front

The Russian army on Sunday claimed the capture of two localities in eastern Ukraine, where it has been advancing slowly but steadily for months against fewer Ukrainian troops.

In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said that units of the group “Sud” had conquered the village of Yantarné, in the Donetsk region (east). This locality is located about ten kilometers southwest of Kurakhové, an important Ukrainian stronghold which Moscow claimed to have seized on Monday after weeks of fighting.

On Saturday, the Russian army said it had also advanced northwest of Kurakhové. Furthermore, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that it had captured the town of Kalinové, in the Kharkiv region (north-east).

This location is on the western bank of the Oskil River, which in this area has long marked the front line between the two camps. But a local Ukrainian official announced Thursday that Russian forces had managed to establish a bridgehead by crossing the Oskil.

The Russian army had attempted several times in recent months to cross this river, which passes in particular through the disputed city of Koupiansk. Russian troops have advanced slowly but steadily on the front in 2024, without achieving a major breakthrough. At the same time, nighttime drone attacks and bombings continue.

During the night from Saturday to Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said it shot down 60 Russian drones. Drone debris damaged several houses in the Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv, Sumy and Poltava, without causing any casualties, according to this source.

In the Kherson region (south), three people were injured by Russian drones, local Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday. In the same region, but in its part controlled by Moscow, a retiree was killed and a man injured by a Ukrainian drone attack, local official appointed by Moscow, Vladimir Saldo, said on Telegram.

In Russia, in the part of the Kursk region controlled by kyiv since an offensive in August, two Russian air strikes heavily damaged a school in Sudja on Saturday evening, reported a local Ukrainian official, Oleksiï Dmytrachkivsky.

“A woman suffered a laceration to her arm, she died in the morning”he told Ukrainian television, specifying that more than 80 elderly people were temporarily living in this building due to the fighting. According to him, around 2,000 civilians still live in the area controlled by the Ukrainian army in the Kursk region.

Finally, in the Russian region of Saratov, the fire at an oil site continued on Sunday, the governor, Roman Boussarguine, indicated on Telegram, four days after a Ukrainian drone attack. According to this source, firefighters are working “24 hours a day” to extinguish the blaze, the surface and smoke of which have decreased, assured the governor.