Ukraine, Russia swap prisoners as Ukrainian forces claim advance made in counteroffensive
Kyiv says troops recaptured in first victory since launch of long-awaited offensive
Russia and Ukraine announced simultaneously on Sunday the return of nearly 100 soldiers from each side.
Russia's Defence Ministry, in a posting on the Telegram messaging app, said 94 Russians in Ukrainian captivity had been released after negotiations and would be taken to a medical institution to be examined.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential administration, said 95 Ukrainian service members had been returned, including some wounded. They included members of the national guard and border guards.
Yermak said those released had been in action near the city of Mariupol, under Russian siege for weeks last year; the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, briefly held last year by Russian forces; from Serpent Island in the Black Sea; and from Bakhmut, still a focal point of fighting in the east.
Ukraine claims first advance in counteroffensive
Kyiv's troops said on Sunday they had recaptured a village from Russian forces in Ukraine's southeast, the first liberated settlement they have claimed since launching a counterattack this week.
Soldiers hoisted the Ukrainian flag at a bombed-out building in an unverified video published by Ukraine's 68th Jaeger Brigade, which identified the settlement as Blahodatne in Donetsk region.
"We're seeing the first results of the counteroffensive actions, localized results," Valeryi Shershen, spokesperson for Ukraine's "Tavria" military sector, said on television.
He said the village lay on the edge of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzia regions a few kilometres south of the Kyiv-controlled village of Velyka Novosilka.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday gave his strongest signal yet that Kyiv has launched its long-awaited counterattack to seize back land in the east and south, confirming that "counteroffensive and defensive operations" were taking place.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that a Ukrainian military push was well underway, but that it had failed so far to breach Russian defensive lines and taken heavy casualties.
Troops 'kicking the enemy out'
Kyiv officials have imposed a strict period of operational silence and urged Ukrainians not to disclose any information that could compromise the operation.
With so little information out of Kyiv and scant independent reporting from the front lines, it has been almost impossible to assess the battlefield situation.
The video from Blahodatne showed Ukrainian troops inside a heavily damaged building as the sound of artillery rumbled in the distance.
"We're kicking the enemy out from our native lands. It's the warmest feeling there is. Ukraine is going to win, Ukraine above everything," an unidentified soldier said in the video on Facebook.
Russia said at least twice this week that it had repelled Ukrainian attacks close by the nearby settlement of Velyka Novosilka.
The occupied southeast is seen as a likely priority for Kyiv's forces that may aim to threaten Russia's land bridge to the annexed peninsula of Crimea and split Russian forces in half.
Blahodatne is around 95 kilometres northwest of the city of Mariupol, which lies on the Sea of Azov on the southern rim of the land bridge. Russia captured the major city last year after besieging and bombarding it.
Russia has built vast fortifications across occupied territory to prepare for a Ukrainian counterattack using thousands of troops trained and equipped by the West.
Wagner founder rebuffs defence minister
Russia's most powerful mercenary said on Sunday that his Wagner fighters would not sign any contract with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, publicly refusing an attempt by the defence ministry to bring his fighting force under its sway.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner group, has repeatedly attacked President Vladimir Putin's top military brass for what he casts as treachery for failing to fight the war in Ukraine properly.
Neither Shoigu nor Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov have commented in public on the insults from Prigozhin, whose forces in May took the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after a battle in which tens of thousands perished.
The defence ministry on Saturday said Shoigu had ordered all "volunteer detachments" to sign contracts with his ministry by the end of the month, a step it said would increase the effectiveness of the Russian army.
Though the ministry did not mention Wagner in its public statement, the Russian media reported that it was an attempt by Shoigu to bring the mercenaries to heel.
"Wagner will not sign any contracts with Shoigu," Prigozhin said in response to a request for comment on the matter. The order, he said, did not apply to Wagner.
The defence ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Prigozhin said Wagner was completely subordinate to the interests of Russia but that its highly efficient command structure would be damaged by reporting to Shoigu.
"Shoigu cannot properly manage military formations," Prigozhin said, adding that Wagner coordinated its actions in Ukraine with General Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian media.
The defence ministry said that in the interests of increasing the effectiveness of "volunteer detachments," all such units — or their men — would have to sign a contract with the defence ministry by July 1.
It did not mention Wagner by name but it routinely refers to Wagner as "volunteer assault detachments."
