Ukraine war latest: Russia, Ukraine trade 193 POWs each as commanders fired over starving soldiers scandal
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Key developments on April 24:
- 193 Ukrainian prisoners of war return home from Russian captivity in latest exchange
- 14th Brigade, 10th Corps commanders dismissed after shocking pictures of emaciated Ukrainian soldiers emerge
- Russian overnight strikes on Odesa residential buildings kill married couple, injure 15
- Ukrainian Neptune missiles destroy Russian drone factory workshops in Rostov Oblast, General Staff confirms
- Russia attacked Ukrainian rail infrastructure more than 1,000 times in 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia says
One hundred ninety-three Ukrainian soldiers returned to Ukrainian-controlled territory after being held in Russian captivity on April 24, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Russia's Defense Ministry also reported releasing 193 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in exchange for 193 Russian soldiers.
The seventy-third prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine continued the Easter exchange, the first phase of which took place on April 11, and was carried out in line with the agreements reached earlier.
Those returned include personnel from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service, the National Police, and the State Special Transport Service, Zelensky said.
The president added that those brought back to Ukraine include individuals against whom Russian authorities have opened criminal cases, as well as wounded soldiers.
Most of those released had been unlawfully detained in Chechnya. Some faced fabricated criminal charges, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, according to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
2 Ukrainian commanders dismissed after shocking pictures of emaciated Ukrainian soldiers emerge
Ukraine's General Staff announced on April 24 the dismissal of the commanders of the 10th Corps and 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade over allegations of losing Ukrainian positions, providing inadequate support to frontline troops, and concealing the true situation in their frontline sector.
The announcement comes after the daughter of a former soldier from the 2nd Mechanized Battalion of the 14th Mechanized Brigade, Ivanna Poberezhniuk, posted photos of severely emaciated soldiers, who she said are stationed at their positions in Kharkiv Oblast without food or water due to command negligence.
The soldiers, assigned to the 2nd Battalion of the 30th Mechanized Brigade, were reportedly fainting from hunger and forced to drink rainwater.
The command, for its part, did not respond to the situation, according to Poberezhniuk.
The wife of one of the brigade's soldiers, Anastasiia Silchuk, also wrote on Facebook on April 21 that soldiers have faced ongoing delays for seven months in the delivery of food, water, essential medical supplies, and fuel to their positions, with shipments sometimes taking seven to 14 days to arrive.
Silchuk added that there are frequent communication disruptions at the positions, with service sometimes unavailable for three to four days.
Ukraine's Defense Ministry responded to Poberezhniuk's post on Threads on April 23, saying that the commander of the 14th Brigade had taken note of the situation and that, despite logistical challenges, efforts were underway to address troop supply issues and rotate personnel.
The following day, the General Staff announced that 14th Brigade commander Anatolii Lysetskyi had been replaced by Taras Maksimov.
The General Staff also said that the current commander of the 10th Corps, Serhii Perts, had been relieved of his post and demoted, and that Artem Bohomolov would become the new commander of the corps.
Russian overnight strikes on Odesa residential buildings kill married couple, injure 15
A Russian drone attack on several residential buildings in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa killed a married couple and left another 15 injured overnight on April 24, authorities reported.
A three-story residential building was struck, leaving six people injured and a fire burning at the site, the State Emergency Service reported.
Another two low-rise residential buildings were damaged in the Russian attack, leaving seven people injured, with one person rescued by emergency responders.
A fourth two-story building was fatally struck by a Russian drone, killing two and injuring one other, the State Emergency Service reported.
The two people killed in the Russian strike were a married couple, both aged 75, Odesa Military Administration head Serhii Lysak later said, adding that one more person has been injured in the drone attack.
Ukrainian Neptune missiles destroy Russian drone factory workshops in Rostov Oblast, General Staff confirms
Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles struck the Atlant Aero plant in the Russian city of Taganrog, Rostov Oblast, destroying two workshops and damaging four other buildings, Ukraine's General Staff conrfirmed on April 24.
Ukrainian forces attacked the factory involved in the full cycle of drone production — design, manufacturing, and testing — on April 19. On the same day, Rostov Oblast Governor Yury Slyusar confirmed the missile strike on the city, saying it damaged "commercial infrastructure."
The Atlant Aero plant manufactures Molniya-class strike and reconnaissance drones, as well as components for the Orion unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to the General Staff.
The Orion weighs about one ton and can carry a payload of up to 250 kilograms, including aerial photography systems, radio-technical reconnaissance modules, optoelectronic systems, KAB-20 guided bombs, and medium-range cruise missiles, the statement read.
"Damaging this facility will reduce the enemy's ability to strike civilian targets in Ukraine," the General Staff said.
The General Staff added that during the April 22 attack, a Project 22460 patrol vessel belonging to the Russian Federal Security Service's Border Guard Service was damaged in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea. It did not specify whether Neptune missiles were used in the strike.
Russia attacked Ukrainian rail infrastructure more than 1,000 times in 2025, Ukrzaliznytsia says
Russia attacked Ukraine's railway infrastructure nearly 1,200 times in 2025, more than in 2024 and 2023 combined, Oleh Yakovenko, the Strategy and Transformation Department's director at Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia), said on April 23, Interfax Ukraine reported.
The statement comes as Russia increasingly targets Ukraine's railway infrastructure, which transports foreign military aid and other cargo. Russian strikes have also increasingly hit passenger trains, resulting in repeated civilian casualties.
Nearly 17,300 railway infrastructure facilities and pieces of rolling stock have been affected, including 7,300 damaged and 9,900 destroyed, since the start of the full-scale war, Yakovenko said at the 8th International Conference “Railways of Ukraine: Development and Investment.”
Forty railway workers have been killed while on duty since 2022, Yakovenko said.
In 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, Russian strikes damaged 209 locomotives, 239 passenger carriages, and 371 freight wagons, as well as 86 railway bridges and 50 stations, according to Ukrzaliznytsia.
At the same time, in the past two months alone, Russia has carried out 352 strikes on railway infrastructure.
Note from the author:
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