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Ukraine war: Britons released in prisoner exchange named as 1,300 held in Russia after anti-mobilisation protests – live | Russia

Five Britons held by Russian authorities named

The names of five British nationals released by Russian-backed forces in Ukraine overnight have been confirmed.

Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner, John Harding, Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill were flown to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia before being flown back to Britain.

They were reunited with their families after landing at Heathrow Airport.

On Wednesday, the UK prime minister, Liz Truss, confirmed that five Britons held by pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine had been released after the intervention of Saudi Arabia.

Aslin’s MP Robert Jenrick tweeted yesterday that he and “the other British prisoners of war held captive by the Russian authorities” were on their way back to the UK.

In a video filmed on a plane with Pinner beside him, Aslin said:

We just want to let everybody know we are out of the danger zone.

“By the skin of our teeth,” Pinner added, and both men thanked those who had supported them during their detention.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here, taking over the live blog from Martin Belam to bring you all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

Key events

Traffic at Russian border crossings with Finland and Georgia surged after Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilisation announcement sparked fears that men of fighting age would be called to fight on the frontline in Ukraine.

Prices for one-way flights out of Moscow to the nearest foreign locations rose above $5,000 (£4,435), with most air tickets sold out completely for coming days.

Photos showed long tailbacks at border crossings with Georgia.

A queue of cars is seen at the Zemo Larsi/Verkhny Lars checkpoint on the Russia-Georgia border. Photograph: RFE/RL’S GEORGIAN SERVICE/Reuters

The Kremlin has described reports of an exodus of draft-age men from Russia as exaggerated.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has shared photographs of the Ukrainian citizens who have been released by Russia in the largest prisoner exchange since the start of the war.

In a post on Telegram, Zelenskiy wrote:

Ours. Free. We keep working to return all Ukrainians from Russian captivity. Glory to Ukraine!

Azov officer Sviatoslav Palamar who was released in a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.
Azov officer Sviatoslav Palamar who was released in a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine. Photograph: AP
Ukrainian fighters Denys Prokopenko (C-R) speaking with Denys Monastyrskyi (C-L), Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
Ukrainian fighters Denys Prokopenko (C-R) speaking with Denys Monastyrskyi (C-L), minister of internal affairs of Ukraine. Photograph: Ministry Of Internal Affairs Of Ukraine Handout/EPA

France will continue to support Ukraine with arms and training, the country’s defence minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said.

Speaking after a meeting with his German counterpart, Christine Lambrecht, Lecornu added that France needed cooperation within the Nato alliance to continue its support for Kyiv.

Christine Lambrecht and her French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu in Berlin.
Christine Lambrecht and her French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu in Berlin. Photograph: Michele Tantussi/Reuters

Vladimir Putin is “desperate” and “bluffing” with his threats to use nuclear weapons, according to Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko.

In his speech yesterday, the Russian president warned that he had “lots of weapons to reply” to what he called western threats on Russian territory and added that he was not bluffing.

Speaking to Sky News today, Prystaiko said:

When somebody is saying that I’m not bluffing, that’s the first sign that they are actually bluffing. Otherwise, they would do something like prepare the nuclear arsenal.

They’re not doing it, which means that he’s trying to find a magic wand which will allow him to get out of the situation because he’s deeply, deeply in trouble.

Putin was trying to “intimidate all of us”, Prystaiko said, adding that he didn’t believe it would work.

He added:

We just believe in the hope that there are some forces around him (Putin) who will be able to tell him that, you know: ‘We are going nowhere, we’re going down and we’re bringing the whole nation with us.’

The Kremlin has dismissed reports of an exodus of Russian men of fighting age following Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilisation as “exaggerated”.

Flight sales data showed flights from Moscow to the capitals of Georgia, Turkey and Armenia, all destinations that allow Russians to enter without a visa, were sold out within minutes of Putin’s announcement on Wednesday.

In his regular briefing with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also declined to deny Russian media reports that some anti-mobilisation protesters detained on Wednesday night had been given draft papers, saying:

This is not against the law.

Moscow says 55 fighters returned to Russia in prisoner exchange

Russia’s defence ministry has said 55 of its servicemen have been released in the largest prisoner exchange deal with Ukraine since the start of the war.

In a statement, the Kremlin said:

All servicemen have been delivered to the territory of the Russian Federation by military transport aircraft and are in medical institutions of Russia’s defence ministry.

The fighters, who came from Russia’s armed forces and its proxies in the Russian-backed separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, were currently undergoing health checks, it added.

The statement did not mention Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian lawmaker and ally of Vladimir Putin accused of high treason. The Russian-installed separatist head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said Medvedchuk had been freed as part of the deal.

Nearly 300 people, including 10 foreigners and Ukrainian fighters who took part in the siege of Mariupol, were involved in the prisoner swap.

Presidium Network has confirmed that the five Britons captured by Russian-backed forces have been released and are safely home.

The organisation, a UK-based company that says it carries out evacuations of families and individuals from war zones, said:

We know that all are back safely in the UK.

The five are Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner, John Harding, Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill.

The men are all “looking forward to normality with their families after this horrific ordeal”, said Dominik Byrne, co-founder of Presidium.

Five Britons held by Russian authorities named

The names of five British nationals released by Russian-backed forces in Ukraine overnight have been confirmed.

Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner, John Harding, Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill were flown to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia before being flown back to Britain.

They were reunited with their families after landing at Heathrow Airport.

On Wednesday, the UK prime minister, Liz Truss, confirmed that five Britons held by pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine had been released after the intervention of Saudi Arabia.

Aslin’s MP Robert Jenrick tweeted yesterday that he and “the other British prisoners of war held captive by the Russian authorities” were on their way back to the UK.

In a video filmed on a plane with Pinner beside him, Aslin said:

We just want to let everybody know we are out of the danger zone.

“By the skin of our teeth,” Pinner added, and both men thanked those who had supported them during their detention.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here, taking over the live blog from Martin Belam to bring you all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

Summary of the day so far …

  • Security forces detained more than 1,300 people in Russia overnight at protests denouncing mobilisation, a rights group said, hours after Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s first military draft since the second world war.

  • The independent OVD-Info protest monitoring group said that according to information it had collated from 38 Russian cities, more than 1,311 people had been held by late evening. It said those figures included at least 502 in Moscow and 524 in St Petersburg, Russia’s second most populous city. Unsanctioned rallies are illegal under Russia’s anti-protest laws.

  • Russian interior ministry official Irina Volk, in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies, said officers had cut short attempts to stage what it called small protests. “In a number of regions, there were attempts to stage unauthorised actions which brought together an extremely small number of participants,” Volk was quoted as saying. “These were all stopped.”

  • The Moscow Times is carrying a report that a Russian military recruitment office and an administration building were attacked overnight in two separate locations during the anti-mobilisation protests.

Anti-war protests break out across Russia after Putin announces partial mobilisation – video

  • The UK’s ministry of defence has described the mobilisation as an admission that Russia has “exhausted its supply of willing volunteers to fight in Ukraine”. It said “Russia is likely to struggle with the logistical and administrative challenges of even mustering the 300,000 personnel. It will probably attempt to stand up new formations with many of these troops, which are unlikely to be combat effective for months.”

  • Traffic arriving at Finland’s eastern border with Russia has “intensified” during the night, the Finnish border guard said early on Thursday, while adding that the situation was under control. One-way flights out of Russia were rocketing in price and selling out fast on Wednesday after Putin ordered the immediate call-up of 300,000 reservists.

  • Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and prime minister, and currently deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, has threatened attacks on Europe and US, saying “Referendums will be held, and the Donbas republics and other territories will be admitted to Russia. Any Russian weapons, including strategic nuclear weapons and weapons based on new principles, could be used [to protect them]. Therefore, various retired idiots with generals’ stripes do not need to scare us with talk about a Nato strike on Crimea. Hypersonic is guaranteed to be able to reach targets in Europe and the United States much faster.”

  • Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has described Joe Biden’s speech on Wednesday at the UN as “indecent”, and accused the US president of mis-quoting his Russian counterpart over nuclear threats.

  • The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, shrugged off Russian moves to escalate the war, saying his country’s forces would continue their counteroffensive, not giving Russia breathing space to mobilise and dig in on Ukrainian soil. “We can return the Ukrainian flag to our entire territory. We can do it with the force of arms, but we need time,” Zelenskiy said in a recorded broadcast to the UN general assembly on Wednesday.

Zelenskiy addresses UN, lays out Ukraine conditions for peace – video

  • Zelenskiy on Thursday thanked Turkey and Saudi Arabia for their roles in recent prisoner exchanges. This included a Briton who was threatened with execution after being captured by Russian forces during the siege of Mariupol, who has been released alongside four other Britons and five international prisoners after the intervention of Saudi Arabia. Aiden Aslin was released alongside the two fighters he was sentenced to death with at a controversial trial in Russian-held eastern Ukraine in June – Shaun Pinner, and a Moroccan named Brahim Saadoun.

  • The general staff of the Ukraine army has issued updated figures of the losses it claims to have inflicted on Russia and pro-Russia forces within occupied areas of Ukraine, raising it to ~55,510. On Wednesday, Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, spoke of losses amounting to just under 6,000 personnel during what he termed Russia’s “special military operation”.

  • North Korea has denied it is providing arms to Russia, state media said, weeks after the US said Moscow was turning to Pyongyang to replenish its stocks depleted by invading Ukraine.

  • Uzbekistan’s state prosecutors warned citizens against joining foreign armies after Russia offered fast-track citizenship to those who sign up and Ukraine said it had captured Uzbeks fighting alongside Russians.

  • The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency said on Wednesday he had met Ukraine’s and Russia’s foreign ministers in a bid to establish a safety and security zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be with you for the next few hours.

The British prime minister, Liz Truss, has just tweeted: “We will not rest until Ukraine prevails” alongside the full text of her speech to the UN general assembly yesterday, during which she said:

No one is threatening Russia. Yet we meet here this evening… In Ukraine, barbarous weapons are being used to kill and maim people, rape is being used as an instrument of war, families are being torn apart.

And this morning we have seen Putin trying to justify his catastrophic failures. He is doubling down by sending even more reservists to a terrible fate. He is desperately trying to claim the mantle of democracy for a regime without human rights or freedoms. And he is making yet more bogus claims and sabre-rattling threats.

This will not work. The international alliance is strong and Ukraine is strong.

The contrast between Russia’s conduct and Ukraine’s brave, dignified first lady, Olena Zelenska, who is here at the UN today, could not be more stark.

The Ukrainians are not just defending their own country – they are defending our values and the security of the whole world.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss, left, stands with Ukrainian First Lady, Olena Zelenska at the Ukrainian Institute of America on Tuesday.
Liz Truss, left, stands with the Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, at the Ukrainian Institute of America on Tuesday. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AP

The general staff of the Ukraine army has issued updated figures of the losses it claims to have inflicted on Russia and pro-Russia forces within occupied areas of Ukraine.

It has raised the casualty count by 400 personnel in the last 24 hours, taking it to a total of ~55,510.

Загальні бойові втрати противника з 24.02 по 22.09 орієнтовно склали / The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 22.09 were approximately: pic.twitter.com/fRcXHBHZUk

— Генеральний штаб ЗСУ (@GeneralStaffUA) September 22, 2022

Yesterday Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, spoke of losses amounting to just under 6,000 personnel during what he termed Russia’s “special military operation”.

The Ukraine figure likely includes forces fighting for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, who would not be expected to be counted in any official figure of Russian losses.

Nevertheless, the two claimed figures – 55,510 and 5,937 – are some magnitudes apart. Neither figure has been independently verified.

Medvedev threatens attacks on Europe and US: ‘Russia has chosen its own path. There is no way back’

Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and prime minister, and currently deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, has issued another Telegram message containing his typically hawkish rhetoric. He says:

Referendums will be held, and the Donbas republics and other territories will be admitted to Russia. The protection of all the territories that have joined will be significantly strengthened by the Russian armed forces.

Russia announced that not only mobilisation capabilities, but also any Russian weapons, including strategic nuclear weapons and weapons based on new principles, could be used for such protection.

Therefore, various retired idiots with generals’ stripes do not need to scare us with talk about a Nato strike on Crimea. Hypersonic is guaranteed to be able to reach targets in Europe and the United States much faster.

But the western establishment, in general, all citizens of the Nato countries need to understand that Russia has chosen its own path. There is no way back.

The Moscow Times is this morning carrying a report that a Russian military recruitment office and an administration building were attacked overnight in two separate locations during anti-mobilisation protests.

Citing local news sources, it reports:

In the city of Nizhny Novgorod 440km east of Moscow, a molotov cocktail attack started a small fire at a local enlistment building, according to the local nn.ru news website.

A slightly larger fire broke out at a local administration building in Tolyatti, a city located 1,000km east of Moscow.

The city’s news website nesluhi.info reported, citing emergency officials, that the molotov cocktail attack burned down the administration’s entrance.

The Moscow Times reports it is not known if there were any arrests or injuries as a result of the apparent attacks.

Telegram channel Mash posted pictures which it claims showed the damage to the building in Nizhny Novgorod.

The claims have not been verified directly by the Guardian.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to Telegram to thank Turkey and Saudi Arabia for their role in the recent prisoner release. Ukraine’s president writes:

Ukraine returned 215 heroes from Russian captivity. We greatly appreciate the contribution of everyone involved in rescuing the defenders and will never forget it. Many thanks to the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for leading this process.

We agreed that the five released commanders of Azov will be in comfortable conditions in Turkey until the end of the war and will be able to see their families.

Also, as a sign of gratitude for the help to our country, Ukraine freed from Russian captivity five citizens of Great Britain, two citizens of the USA, citizens of Morocco, Sweden, and Croatia. Thank you for your support Saudi Arabia.

We remember all those who are in Russian captivity, and we will do everything for their rescue.

Since Vladimir Putin announced the partial mobilisation of Russia yesterday, according to the OVD-Info monitoring group more than 1,300 people have been arrested in 38 different Russian cities. These are the largest protests seen since Putin launched his invasion in February.

Riot police detain a demonstrator during a protest against mobilisation in Moscow last night.
Riot police detain a demonstrator during a protest against mobilisation in Moscow last night. Photograph: Dmitry Serebryakov/AP

Agence France-Presse journalists in central Moscow report they saw at least 50 people detained by police in riot gear, while in the former imperial capital St Petersburg, police surrounded and detained a small group of protesters, loading them onto a bus as they chanted: “No mobilization!”

“Everyone is scared. I am for peace and I don’t want to have to shoot,” AFP reports protester Vasily Fedorov, a student wearing a pacifist symbol on his chest, said.

Riot police drag away a protester in Moscow last night.
Riot police drag away a protester in Moscow last night. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Here is a video clip of some of the scenes from the streets of Russia overnight.

Anti-war protests break out across Russia after Putin announces partial mobilisation – video



https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/sep/22/russia-ukraine-war-eu-to-prepare-new-sanctions-on-moscow-zelenskiy-lays-out-peace-formula-at-un-live-updates Ukraine war: Britons released in prisoner exchange named as 1,300 held in Russia after anti-mobilisation protests – live | Russia

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