Russia-Ukraine war updates: Over 310 prisoners exchanged amid talks

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Russia is still ready to engage in dialogue with the US ⁠if the latter responds constructively to its proposal to keep abiding by ‌the limits of the expiring New START nuclear treaty, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“Listen, ‌if there ‌are any ⁠constructive replies, of course we will conduct ‌a dialogue,” he told reporters.

He also said the Kremlin regretted the end of the last treaty governing the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the US.

“We view it negatively,” Peskov said.

Ukraine’s president has hailed today’s release, thanking everyone who worked to free the Ukrainian prisoners.

“Without the determination of our soldiers, such exchanges would be impossible,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a post on Telegram.

“Let’s continue working to free our people from captivity. We must return and will definitely return everyone.”

Let’s bring you up to speed with the latest developments:

• Ukraine and Russia have conducted their first prisoner exchange in months, each releasing 157 captured soldiers, Russia’s Defence Ministry says.
• The exchange has come as negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv have held a second day of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi on ending their war as Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and the two sides have continued their grinding war of attrition.
• Ukraine’s military says it had launched a series of successful strikes in January on a complex at the Kapustin Yar missile launch site in Astrakhan in southern Russia.
• Starlink terminals used by Russia for drone attacks inside Ukraine have been deactivated, Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov says.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has begun a visit to Ukraine, where he is to hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Last night was the third consecutive night that Russia launched aerial attacks into Ukraine.

While there were no deaths, several people were injured around the country, two of them here in Kyiv.

And in the front-line city of Sumy, a railcar was damaged in an attack – a railcar that was being used as an emergency shelter from the cold.

Since the winter began, there have been continued Russian attacks on energy infrastructure that have led to emergency shelters being erected around the country. So we have seen these sustained attacks for a number of weeks now.

Following the first round of trilateral talks last month, it was agreed to put a halt to strikes on energy infrastructure.

While nothing of that nature has been announced from these ongoing talks in Abu Dhabi, many hope that perhaps there will be a similar announcement in the coming days.

These have historically been points that both sides have been able to agree on – the exchange of prisoners, as well as deceased bodies of soldiers throughout the conflict.

In the spring, when both sides had met in Turkiye, they also agreed to similar prisoner swaps – 1,000 for 1,000 for example – but still, this is the first agreement of its kind in the past five months.

Critics may, with that in mind, say that this announcement in and of itself is not particularly groundbreaking.

But many here say that it is at least still something – especially for many of those mothers who will now be welcoming home their sons who have been in captivity.

Russia is ready for international cooperation over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, including with the United ⁠States, a senior nuclear official has been quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.

However, the facility must be under Russian control, said Alexei Likhachev, head of ⁠the state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

Russian forces have controlled the plant in southern Ukraine since shortly after the start of the war ‌in 2022. Its fate is one of the points of contention between Russia ‌and Ukraine in peace talks mediated ‌by the United ⁠States.

The six reactors are not in operation, and the plant ‌relies on external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a catastrophic accident.

Here are the latest developments:

• Delegations from Ukraine and Russia have started a second day of US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi to discuss ending the almost four-year war.
• Ukraine and Russia have agreed to exchange 314 prisoners, US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announced on X.
• Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev told state media there has been “progress” in the talks, with things “moving forward in a good, positive direction”.
• The last remaining arms pact between the US and Russia expired on Thursday. Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday night said it assumes “that the parties to the New START Treaty are no longer bound by any obligations or symmetrical declarations within the context of the Treaty”.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said an estimated 55,000 of his country’s soldiers have been killed since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Starlink terminals used by Russia for drone attacks inside Ukraine have been deactivated, the Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has said.

He said in a post on Telegram that Ukraine is working with Starlink to update “white lists” once a day, saying it’s a “very large-scale process” to verify all devices.

“White lists” are an official registry of approved civilian terminals aimed at preventing unauthorised use.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on X that it “[looks] like the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked. Let us know if more needs to be done.”

In 2024, Musk denied that Starlink terminals had been sold to Russia. Ukrainian intelligence services say the Russian military has obtained terminals through third countries.

The Russian Foreign Ministry says a German diplomat will be expelled after Berlin last month threw out a Russian official it accused of being a spy handler.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it had issued a “note declaring a diplomatic employee of the German Embassy in Moscow persona non grata” in what was a “symmetrical response”.

Delegations from Ukraine and ⁠Russia have agreed to exchange 314 prisoners, US President Donald ⁠Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has said in a post ‌on X.

“This outcome was achieved from peace talks that have been detailed and productive,’ he said.

“While significant work remains, steps like this demonstrate that sustained diplomatic engagement is delivering tangible results and advancing efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

“Discussions will continue, with additional progress anticipated in the coming weeks.”

The Kremlin says it can neither confirm ⁠nor deny reports that French President Emmanuel Macron’s top diplomat visited Moscow this week.

Emmanuel Bonne was in Moscow on Tuesday to hold talks with Russian officials, a ‌French source who was aware of the meeting and ‌two diplomatic sources told the Reuters news agency.

Kremlin spokesman ‌Dmitry Peskov ⁠told reporters only that French sources were fond of ‌leaking to the media.