Ukraine-Russia war: 'Don't fall back into our hands,' Wagner group tells freed prisoners of war

Russia's most powerful mercenary group, Wagner, sent at least 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war back to Ukrainian forces to mark Orthodox Easter, according to a video posted by the group's founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

"Prepare all of them, feed and water them, check the wounded," Mr Prigozhin was shown saying in a video posted on Telegram by his press service.

A group of Ukrainian prisoners were then shown being told that they would be passed back to Ukrainian forces to mark Orthodox Easter.

"I hope you don't fall back into our hands," an armed Wagner soldier was told telling the men before they were ordered into a truck, some loading packs of water bottles.

More than 100 men, some limping and some being carried on stretchers by their comrades, were shown making their way in line along a muddy road as a man standing on a tank held a white flag.

President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said 130 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been released and returned home in a "great Easter exchange". It was not clear how many Russians were sent back the other way.

05:00 PM

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04:48 PM

Vladimir Putin forces Russia’s ‘militarisation’ with war veteran election candidates

Vladimir Putin will promote Ukrainian war veterans as candidates for his United Russia party in regional elections this year, local media has reported, reinforcing the “militarisation” of Russia.

At a meeting this week of the Young Guard, United Russia’s youth wing, Alexander Sidyakin, the party’s deputy secretary general, said that he had been ordered to give war veterans his “full support”.

“We will help them with campaigning and information. Help them make videos, print materials, promote them somewhere on social networks,” he said.

Read the full story from James Kilner here

04:23 PM

Ukraine foreign minister to visit Iraq on Monday

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is expected in Baghdad on Monday on his first visit to Iraq since Russia invaded his country, the foreign ministry said.

Kuleba is due to hold talks with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein as well as Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

They will discuss "bolstering bilateral ties, as well as regional and international" issues, said the statement quoting foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Sahhaf.

Kuleba's visit comes less than a week after Sudani received a phone call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

04:02 PM

Pictured: A Ukrainian serviceman eats some Easter cake

03:35 PM

G7's top diplomats in Japan

The G7's top diplomats arrived in the Japanese resort town of Karuizawa on Sunday for talks set to be dominated by twin crises: China's growing pressure on Taiwan, and Russia's war in Ukraine.

The foreign ministers arrived by special bullet train for discussions that will set the stage for a leaders' summit in Hiroshima next month.

Host Japan is keen to ensure regional challenges top the agenda, and will emphasise its belief that Russia's invasion of Ukraine heightens the need for vigilance in Asia.

"Japan's basic position... on Ukraine is that the security of Europe and that of the Indo-Pacific cannot be discussed separately," a Japanese government official said ahead of the talks.

"They are intertwined with each other."

02:52 PM

Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers fire artillery on the frontline on Easter day

02:16 PM

Kuleba: 'Faith in the triumph of good over evil'

01:43 PM

Pictured: A woman collects Orthodox icons at a site of a church destroyed by a Russian missile strike

01:19 PM

EU says unilateral action on trade unacceptable after grain import bans

Unilateral action on trade by European Union member states is unacceptable, a European Commission spokesperson said on Sunday after Poland and Hungary announced bans on imports from neighbouring Ukraine to protect the local agricultural sector.

"We are aware of Poland and Hungary's announcements regarding the ban on imports of grain and other agricultural products from Ukraine," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

"In this context, it is important to underline that trade policy is of EU exclusive competence and, therefore, unilateral actions are not acceptable."

12:46 PM

Inside the US arms factory churning out shells for Ukraine’s war effort

Just off the President Biden Expressway in Scranton, Pennsylvania - the town where Joe Biden was born - a military production effort not seen since the Korean War is underway.

Inside a sprawling 500,000 sq ft brick former locomotive factory, giant robots toil around the clock, plucking newly forged 155mm artillery shells out of a 2,000-degree furnace.

In the coming weeks and months, these shells will be fired from hundreds of howitzers toward Vladimir Putin’s forces during Kyiv’s spring counter-offensive.

Read the full story from Nick Allen here

12:18 PM

Polish ban on Ukrainian grain and food imports to apply to transit, says minister

A Polish ban on imports of Ukrainian grain and other food will also apply to the transit of these products through the country, the development and technology minister said.

Poland and Hungary said on Saturday that they had decided to ban imports from neighbouring Ukraine to protect the local agricultural sector after a flood of supply depressed prices across the region. The Polish ban came into effect on Saturday evening.

"The ban is full, including the ban on transit through Poland," Waldemar Buda wrote on Twitter, adding that talks would be held with the Ukrainian side to create a system that ensures goods only pass through Poland and do not end up on the local market.

Ukraine's ministry of agrarian policy and food said on Saturday that the Polish ban contradicted existing bilateral agreements on exports, and called for talks to settle the issue.

11:48 AM

Putin applauds 'strengthening' role of church amid conflict

Russian President Vladimir Putin marked Orthodox Easter Sunday by applauding the "strengthening" role of the church for society and youth, while the country's top bishop supported the offensive in Ukraine.

"I would like to express my profound gratitude for your tireless and selfless work in preserving the enduring historical, spiritual, moral and family values, by educating and enlightening youth," said Mr Putin after taking part in the liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.

"For many years, your wise pastoral words have served to strengthen society... Today, as we face serious challenges, it is particularly important," he added.

11:24 AM

Pictured: Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin attend the Orthodox Easter service

11:05 AM

Imprisoned reporter writes home: 'My mother's cooking prepared me for Russian jail'

An American reporter jailed by Russia has said his mother’s cooking had prepared him well for the gruel served for breakfast by his prison guards.

In his first letter since being arrested and charged with espionage, Evan Gershkovich told his family he was “not losing hope”.

The Wall Street Journal, the newspaper Mr Gershkovich works for in Russia, published extracts from a letter its correspondent had sent to his parents in Philadelphia.

Read more from James Kilner here

10:37 AM

Unprecedented 'bloody battles' in Bakhmut, says Ukrainian military

Ukrainian and Russian armed forces are fighting extraordinarily bloody battles in Bakhmut, but pro-Kyiv forces are still holding on, Ukraine's military has said.

"Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city's urban area," said Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern military command.

"Our soldiers are doing everything in bloody and fierce battles to grind down (the enemy's) combat capability and break its morale. Every day, in every corner of this city, they are successfully doing so," he told the 1+1 television channel.

10:19 AM

Brazil's Lula raises war mediation with China and UAE

Brazil's president said he had discussed joint mediation for Russia's war in Ukraine with China and the United Arab Emirates, accusing the United States and Europe of prolonging the conflict.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was wrapping up an official visit to China and the UAE after returning for a third term in office, said the two countries and others should join a "political G20" to try to end the war.

The veteran leftist, who has faced accusations of being overly cosy with Russian President Vladimir Putin, also remarked that the war was caused "by decisions made by two countries".

"President Putin doesn't take any initiatives to stop the war. (President Volodymyr) Zelensky from Ukraine doesn't take any initiatives to stop the war," Lula, speaking through an official translator, told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

"Europe and the US continue to give their way of contribution to continue the war. So they have to sit around the table and say, 'That's enough'."

09:59 AM

Pictured: An Orthodox priest sprays holy water on believers during the celebration of Orthodox Easter in front of a heavily damaged church

09:55 AM

Latest MoD update

09:54 AM

Ukraine counteroffensive could succeed because of ‘lazy Kremlin elite’, says Russian mercenary chief

Ukraine’s counteroffensive will likely smash through Russia’s defences because Russia’s “decadent elite” has undermined the Kremlin’s war machine, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has said.

His comments are the most forthright assessment yet from a top Russian commander that the Kremlin’s armies will fail to repel the major Ukrainian attack expected in the coming weeks.

“The Ukrainian army will launch a counteroffensive and somewhere will be able to break through the defences,” he said in an essay published online.

Read the full story from James Kilner here

09:53 AM

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