Azovstal steel plant defender calls his beloved ones after prisoners of war swap between Ukraine and Russia on May 6 (Andriy Yermak/Telegram)
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak reported on May 6 that 45 Ukrainian prisoners of war had returned home from Russian captivity as part of a prisoner exchange.
Yermak said all of the POWs, including 10 officers, had defended the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast when it was besieged by Russian troops in 2022.
One of the returned POWs had spent 2.5 years in Russian captivity before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. When swapped, he returned to Ukraine, defended the Azovstal plant and was captured again.
Among the released Ukrainians are 42 men and three women, Yermak said.
On April 16, Ukraine also returnedhome another 130 POWs.
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About 1.3 billion Danish kroner ($200 million) have been allocated to the so-called "Danish model," a mechanism under which a partner country provides direct funding to Ukrainian arms manufacturers.
Geolocated footage analyzed by OSINT analysts from the independent Russian outlet Astra showed the house had been partially destroyed. Local residents also reported hearing explosions and air defense activity over Yegoryevsk.
The EU's new steel allocation, set to enter into force on July 1, was introduced in response to global steel overcapacity, which has been hurting EU producers. The measure aims to restrict tariff-free steel imports to 18.3 million metric tons per year, a 47% reduction.
Nilsson also said Sweden saw no signs that Russia's political system or Vladimir Putin's grip on power were under immediate threat, despite economic strains caused by the war and Western sanctions.
Even if the decision is adopted at the EU level, it will not prevent Budapest from accepting ethnic Hungarians fleeing Ukraine because of the war or mobilization, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said.
The plan, backed by 300 billion pounds ($400 billion) in funding over four years, is part of a drive toward a more "European NATO" and will help the British forces deter the Russian threat, outgoing U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
According to the French news outlet BFM TV, the blast injured Ukrainian businessman Vadym Yermolaiev, his partner, and 13-year-old daughter. Authorities are investigating the incident as a possible terrorist attack.
The Norwegian defense company Kongsberg and Ukraine's DevDroid announced on June 30 a collaboration to produce ground drones equipped with state-of-the-art weapons systems, aiming to supply Ukraine and other European countries.
The payment is part of the initial 6-billion-euro ($7-billion) tranche dedicated to drone procurement under the 90-billion-euro ($103 billion) Ukraine Support Loan.
"I proposed what I believe was a very fair, partnership-based approach: MiGs in exchange for drones," Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said. "The Ukrainians initially accepted it but did not follow through, so there are no MiGs for Ukraine because there are no drones, or drone capabilities, for Poland."
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