Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin admits he is facing ‘serious challenges’

Wagner, Russia’s most powerful mercenary group, 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, on Sunday.

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

A group of Ukrainian prisoners was 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 Zelenskiy’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.

Russia’s Wagner Group has been gradually pushing out Ukrainian forces from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Wagner now claims control of most of the city, though Ukraine has repeatedly disputed claims its forces have almost been pushed out.

Prigozhin was shown greeting refugees in the city, including a boy named Vladimir, before they were evacuated. The people appeared to be sleeping in a cramped underground cellar of some kind. Prigozhin handed out chocolate bars to the children.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has been urged to end the war in Ukraine by the head of the Wagner mercenary army deployed by the Kremlin.

Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed Russia had taken a “fat chunk” of Ukrainian territory and said president Putin should tell the world Russia has achieved the aims of its “special military operation,” in a video posted online on Friday night.

Mr Prigozhin also said Russian armed forces – who have suffered severe losses – should defend existing gains.

The Wagner mercenary chief also warned that the Russian people may seek a “scapegoat” for military failures as the war drags on, which could lead to revolutionary fervour.

Mr Prigozhin claimed Russia has destroyed “a large part of the active male population of Ukraine” and caused others to flee the country.

“For the authorities and society as a whole, it is today necessary to put a solid full stop on the special military operation,” said Mr Prigozhin.

“The ideal option is to announce the end of the special military operation, to inform everyone that Russia has achieved the results that it planned, and in a sense we have actually achieved them.

“We have ground down a huge number of fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and we can report to ourselves that the tasks of the special military operation have been completed.”

He continued: “Theoretically, Russia has already [made a point] by destroying a large part of the active male population of Ukraine, and by intimidating another part of it, which fled to Europe.

“Russia cut off the Sea of Azov and a large piece of the Black Sea, seized a fat piece of Ukrainian territory and created a land corridor to the Crimea.

“Now there is only one thing left: to firmly gain a foothold, to claw in those territories that already exist.”

The comments mark the first time a senior Putin henchman directly involved in fighting on the ground has publicly called for the Kremlin to halt the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted he is facing “serious challenges” as he celebrates the second Orthodox Easter of his war with Ukraine.

“The wonderful, beloved Easter holiday gives believers hope, inspires good thoughts and deeds, and serves to affirm high moral ideals and values in society,” said Putin, who is waging a war on Ukraine that is feared to have already killed more than 200,000 people.

“The Church has always been together with the people, sharing joys and hardships with them. And today, in the face of serious challenges, it is actively involved in the affairs of mercy and charity, helping people find a strong spiritual support.”

Putin attended an Easter service conducted by the Russian Orthodox Church, which has strongly backed the Kremlin leader’s decision to invade Ukraine, on Sunday.

Putin, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and dark purple tie, stood to one side in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral, holding a lit red candle, live images of the midnight service showed. He also attended last year.

The Russian leader crossed himself several times during the ceremony, known as the Divine Liturgy. When Patriarch Kirill announced “Christ has risen”, Putin joined the other members of the congregation with the reply “Truly he is risen”. He otherwise did not speak.

Kirill’s statements backing Russia’s invasion, which Kyiv and Western nations condemn as an act of aggression, have splintered the worldwide Orthodox Church.

In January, Putin praised the church for supporting Moscow’s forces fighting in Ukraine in an Orthodox Christmas message designed to rally people behind his vision of modern Russia.

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 on Sunday.

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.

After Russia’s invasion blocked some Black Sea ports, large quantities of Ukrainian grain, which is cheaper than that produced in the European Union, ended up staying in Central European states due to logistical bottlenecks, hitting prices and sales for local farmers.

The issue has created a political problem for Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party in an election year as it has angered people in rural areas where support for the party is usually high.

YouTube is hosting videos glamorising and raising funds for the Wagner Group, it has been reported, leading to claims the platform could have breached sanctions law.

Multiple propaganda clips feature on the video and social media platform glorifying the Russian private military company accused of war crimes, reported The Sunday Times. The videos also raise money for ammunition for the mercenaries, who have been accused of rape, torture and murder in Ukraine and elsewhere. The clips, which include rap songs, even encourage viewers to join the paramilitary organisation, which include tens of thousands of convicts from jails in Russia and Africa.

The group, which is leading the bloodiest battle of the war in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, has been sanctioned by many western governments, with the US designating it a “transnational criminal organisation” and the UK sanctioning its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Experts said YouTube, which is owned by Google, could be breaching sanctions law. Jonathan Winer, a former deputy assistant US secretary of state for international law enforcement, told The Sunday Times: “Tech platforms like YouTube do not get a free pass in providing services to sanctioned entities like the Wagner Group.”

The algorithm of YouTube, which is owned by Google, also appears to be fuelling pro-Russian disinformation, evidenced by the platform directing viewers to more violent Wagner videos after the previous one ends.

The clips also seem to break the platform’s community guidelines, which ban “content praising or justifying violent acts carried out by violent extremist, criminal, or terrorist organisations”.

One recruitment promotional video is of dancing balaclava-clad mercenaries chanting the lyrics: “War is our element / Come on, Russia, get up / Come on Russia / Come on, Wagner play / It’s the breath of Armageddon / This is the birth of a new country / Russia, rise under the holy banners / Holy banners of holy war.”

A YouTube spokeswoman told The Sunday Times: “Content intended to praise, promote, or aid violent extremist or criminal organisations is not allowed on YouTube. Google is committed to compliance with US sanctions laws and enforces related policies unader its terms of service.”

“Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades” are taking place between Ukrainian and Russian armed forces in the eastern city of Bakhmut, but pro-Kyiv forces are still holding on, Ukraine’s military reported on Saturday.

Fighters of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group also captured two more areas of Bakhmut, Russia’s Defence Ministry said earlier on Saturday, but the report could not be independently confirmed.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern military command, told the 1+1 television channel: “Bloody battles unprecedented in recent decades are taking place in the middle of the city’s urban area.

“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.”

As Russia launched a renewed assault in Bakhmut, Ukrainian troops had been forced to cede some territory there, the UK said in an intelligence update on Friday.

The extraordinarily bloody fighting comes as the death toll from a Russian attack on residential buildings in nearby Sloviansk rose to 11. Russian missiles hit residential buildings in the eastern Ukrainian on Friday, killing 11 people, wounding 21 and reducing parts of apartment blocks to a tangled mess of metal and concrete.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says Russia should pay for the damage caused in Ukraine during Moscow’s invasion.

Ms Yellen said talks are ongoing on the potential mechanisms to make that happen.

“That’s a responsibility that I think the global community expects Russia to bear. This is something we’re discussing with our partners, but there are legal constraints on what we can do with frozen Russian assets,” she said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

Finland has unveiled the first section of its barbed-wired fence under construction along its long border with Russia, mainly meant to curb illegal migration.

The Finnish Border Guard showcased the building of the initial 3km (1.8 mile) stretch of the fence on Friday less than two weeks after the Nordic country joined NATO as the 31st member of the military alliance.

The border’s construction was approved last year amid wide political support mainly to prevent illegal immigration from Russia.

In 2015-2016, as a show of its strength Moscow organise large numbers of asylum-seekers, mostly from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other Middle Eastern countries, to northern Finnish crossing points.

In case you missed it…

Russian President Putin has signed a bill allowing authorities to issue electronic notices to draftees and reservists amid the fighting in Ukraine. The bill signed into law by Putin was published Friday on the official register of government documents.

Russia’s military service rules previously required the in-person delivery of notices to conscripts and reservists who are called up for duty. Under the new law, the notices issued by local military conscription offices will continue to be sent by mail but they would be considered valid from the moment they are put on a state portal for electronic services.

In the past, many Russians avoided the draft by staying away from their address of record. The new law closes that loophole in an apparent effort to create a tool for quickly beefing up the military ahead of a widely anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming weeks.

Recipients who fail to show up for service would be prohibited from leaving Russia, would have their drivers’ licenses suspended and would be barred from selling their apartments and other assets.

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After his China visit and meeting his counterpart in Beijing, Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the US should stop “encouraging war” in Ukraine.

“The US needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace. The European Union needs to start talking about peace,” Mr Lula said, according to AFP.

With that, he said, the international community could “convince” the Russian and Ukrainian presidents that “peace is in the interest of the whole world.”