Russia and Ukraine on Monday carried out a major prisoner swap, with 106 Russian prisoners of war being freed in exchange for 100 Ukrainians, both sides said. The exchange comes as the commander of Ukraine's ground forces said Russian troops had switched to "scorched earth" tactics in the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery. Follow our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
This live blog is no longer being updated. For more of our coverage on the war in Ukraine, please click here.
9:18pm: Leaked documents a 'very serious' risk to security, Pentagon says
The apparent leak of highly sensitive US documents – many of them related to the war in Ukraine – presents a “very serious” risk to US national security, the Pentagon said Monday.
The breach, which is being investigated by the Justice Department, appears to include assessments and secret intelligence reports that touch not only on Ukraine and Russia but also highly sensitive analyses of US allies.
The documents circulating online pose “a very serious risk to national security and have the potential to spread disinformation”, Chris Meagher, the assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, told journalists.
“We’re still investigating how this happened, as well as the scope of the issue. There have been steps to take a closer look at how this type of information is distributed and to whom,” he said.
9:01pm: Kremlin critic facing 25 years in jail tells court he regrets nothing
Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza said on Monday he stood by all of his political statements, including against the Ukraine offensive, that led him to face 25 years in jail.
“I subscribe to every word that I have said, that I am incriminated for today,” Kara-Murza said, citing his fight against the Ukraine offensive and President Vladimir Putin. “Not only do I not repent for any of it – I am proud of it,” he said in his last words to the court, which were published on journalist Alexei Venediktov’s Telegram channel.
Kara-Murza, 41, is accused of several charges including treason, spreading false information about the Russian army. “I only blame myself for one thing,” he said. “I failed to convince enough of my compatriots and politicians in democratic countries of the danger that the current Kremlin regime poses for Russia and for the world.”
The court is set to issue its verdict on the case next Monday.
5:13pm: Ukraine forced to rethink counter-offensive after document leak, CNN reports
Ukraine has been forced to amend some of its military plans ahead of a much-vaunted counter-offensive due to a suspected leak of classified US documents, CNN reported on Monday citing a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukrainian officials played down the CNN report. On Friday they said the allegedly leaked documents contained fictitious information and looked like a Russian disinformation campaign.
Asked about the report, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said Kyiv’s strategic plans remained unchanged but that specific tactics were always subject to change.
“There are strategic tasks – they are unchangeable,” he told the Reuters news agency. “But operational and tactical scenarios are constantly refined, based on an assessment of the situation on the battlefield, resource provision, intelligence data on the enemy’s resources, etc,” he said.
“Right now its impossible to reassess plans, because they are only being worked out (now),” he added.
4:29pm: Russia and Ukraine swap more than 200 prisoners
Russia and Ukraine has carried out a major prisoner swap, with 106 Russian prisoners of war being freed in exchange for 100 Ukrainians, both sides said.
In a Telegram post, Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak said the released Ukrainians included defenders of Mariupol city and its Azovstal steel plant, captured in the war’s opening months.
Russia’s defence ministry said its prisoners were freed after a process of negotiations.
Russia and Ukraine have engaged in periodic prisoner swaps since the beginning of the war in Feburary 2022, in a rare example of direct contact between the enemies.
3:17pm: Russian-installed official says Russia controls 75% of Bakhmut
The Russian-installed head of the Moscow-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region Denis Pushilin told state television on Monday that Russian forces controlled 75 percent of the embattled city of Bakhmut.
1:55pm: Ukraine says only 1,800 civilians still living in 'ruins' of Avdiivka
The civilian population of the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka has dwindled to 1,800 people from 32,000 before the war, the local governor has said.
Avdiivka has been one of the main targets of Russia's winter offensive, which has only been able to make small territorial advances in the east.
"The Russians have turned Avdiivka into a total ruin," said Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk's regional governor, adding that the city was hit by an air strike on Monday that destroyed a multi-storey building.
"Fortunately, there were no casualties as all the residents of the building evacuated in time," he said. "In total, around 1,800 people remain in Avdiivka, all of whom risk their lives every day."
1:35pm: Belarus leader says he wants guarantees Russia will defend his country
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has told Russia's defence minister that he wants guarantees Moscow will defend his country if it is attacked, the state-owned BelTA news agency reports.
BelTA cited Lukashenko as making the remarks to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu during a meeting in the Belarusian capital Minsk.
Lukashenko was cited as saying that Russia's Vladimir Putin that such security guarantees were necessary and needed to be formalised.
"In general, it sounded at the talks (with Putin) that in the case of aggression against Belarus, the Russian Federation would protect Belarus as its own territory. These are the kind of security (guarantees) we need," Lukashenko was quoted as saying.
1:15pm: France cannot mediate in Ukraine, Kremlin says
The Kremlin has said France cannot broker a peace deal in Ukraine as it sides with Kyiv in the conflict.
Paris is "both indirectly and directly involved in this conflict on the side of Ukraine," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "Therefore, it is still difficult to imagine any mediation efforts here."
During his visit to China last week, French President Emmanuel Macron called on Chinese leader Xi Jinping to "bring Russia back to its senses" over Ukraine.
>> Read more : On China visit, Macron attempts diplomatic balancing act on Ukraine
11:55am: Moscow-backed official claims visit to Bakhmut
A Moscow-backed official from Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region has announced that he visited the frontline city of Bakhmut, suggesting that Russia's forces have made significant gains there.
Denis Pushilin, the Russia-installed head of the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region, posted a video of himself on Telegram in the heavily destroyed city.
"Here is our Artemovsk," Pushilin said, using the Soviet-era name for Bakhmut. "It is being liberated by Wagnerites," he added, in reference to the Wagner mercenary group spearheading Russia's battle in the city.
Destroyed buildings and ruins could be seen in the background behind Pushilin, who wore a camouflage helmet. He appeared to be standing in the central Svoboda square of the city.
The head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, last week claimed the group had "in a legal sense" captured Bakhmut because he said it had taken control of city hall. The Russian army reported no such gains, and Ukraine has said it is continuing to defend the city.
10:35am: Ukrainians collect bodies of enemy soldiers for return to Russia
Last year, as Russia was forced out of areas of Ukraine it had occupied, thousands of Russian casualties were left behind. Since then small groups of Ukrainians, both military and civilian, have been trying to find and collect the bodies in order to send them back to Russia.
FRANCE 24's correspondent Gulliver Cragg reports from Kharkiv, Ukraine.
9:45am: Ukraine says Russia switching to 'scorched earth' tactics in Bakhmut
The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces says Russian troops have switched to "scorched earth" tactics in the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut and are destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery.
"The enemy switched to the so-called scorched earth tactics from Syria. It is destroying buildings and positions with air strikes and artillery fire," said Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine's ground forces.
"The situation is difficult but controllable," he said in comments quoted by Ukraine's Media Military Centre.
Syrskyi said Russian forces were bringing in special forces and airborne assault units to help their attack on the city as members of Russia's Wagner military group had become "exhausted".
1:46am: Ukraine's Zelensky denounces Russian strikes on Orthodox Palm Sunday
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has denounced Russian air strikes coinciding with the observance of Orthodox Palm Sunday, including an attack that killed a father and daughter at home in the city of Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine's military reported Russian attacks and shelling throughout the front, with the heaviest fighting still focused on two cities in eastern Donetsk region – Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
Russian forces have been besieging Bakhmut for months in the longest battle in more than a year of war.
-
Key developments from Sunday, April 9:
A 50-year-old man and his 11-year-old daughter were killed after Russian forces struck a residential building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia early on Sunday, authorities said. Russia's military said it destroyed a depot containing 70,000 tonnes of fuel near Zaporizhzhia, as well as Ukrainian army warehouses storing missiles, ammunition and other artillery weapons.
The US Department of Justice said it had opened an investigation into the leak of a trove of classified documents, many related to Ukraine. The breach appears to include assessments and secret intelligence reports that touch not only on Ukraine and Russia but also highly sensitive analyses of US allies.
>> Read our live blog for all of yesterday’s developments as they unfolded
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)
