As Russia continues to build up its forces in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine is turning to its own prisoners of war to make up for manpower shortages on the battlefield. Ukraine’s Deputy Justice Minister Olena Vysotska told The Associated Press that more than 3,000 prisoners have been paroled and deployed to military units after parliament approved such recruitment in a controversial mobilization bill last month. The Associated Press visited a rural prison in southeastern Ukraine where several prisoners were offered parole in exchange for battlefield service. “You can put an end to this and start a new life,” a recruiter, a member of one volunteer assault battalion, told them. Ukraine has not released details on troop deployments or casualties, but front-line commanders openly acknowledge they face serious manpower shortages.
Viktor Orban, one of Europe’s most pro-Russian leaders, is due to travel to Kiev on Tuesday. The Hungarian prime minister met with Volodymyr Zelensky in what was his first visit to the neighbouring country since Russia’s full-scale aggression began and comes during Hungary’s rotating presidency of the EU. By contrast, Orban’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, has visited at least five times. trip No aid has been given to Russia since the war began. Hungary has repeatedly questioned the need to support Ukraine militarily, calling for a ceasefire instead. Last week, EU member states agreed to use 1.4 billion euros (£1.2 billion) of profits from frozen Russian assets to buy arms and other aid to Ukraine, circumventing a Hungarian veto that has repeatedly delayed EU decisions on Ukraine.
A British man who founded a charity supporting Ukrainian troops has been killed during fighting with Russian forces. “We are working to help fight the 1970s and 1980s,” the charity said. Peter Fouché founded Project Konstantin to provide drones, food and other supplies to the Ukrainian military, evacuate civilians, and deliver humanitarian aid to conflict zones near the front line. Before starting Project Konstantin, Fouché helped build a field hospital in Kiev and later joined the Ukrainian army as a contract soldier, according to the charity’s website.
A Russian patriotic poem praising Vladimir Putin and supporting the war in Ukraine turns out to be a translation of a Nazi poem. Gennady Rakitin’s 18 poems have garnered considerable support in Russia over the past year and have been featured in poetry prizes, but pranksters have revealed that they have invented Rakitin, translating poems such as odes to the Führer and Sturmabteilung troopers, simply replacing references to Germany with Russian ones. “We read the Z collection and saw real Nazism in it. We suspected that Nazi Germany might have written the exact same thing, and we were right,” the group behind the project said in a written response to questions from the Guardian.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its forces had taken control of two villages in eastern Ukraine.The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had taken control of the Stepova Novoselivka settlement in Kharkiv Oblast and Novopokrovsky in Donetsk Oblast. A Ukrainian military statement partially denied Russia’s claims. In an evening report, the Ukrainian General Staff said its forces had repelled 17 attacks in the Kupyansk region near Kharkiv, including the Stepova Novoselivka area. It said fighting was intensifying further west near Shinkivka. Russia has announced a series of incremental advances since taking the city of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast in February. It was the second day in a row that Moscow has announced the capture of new areas.
