Updates from key battlefields: Grim outlook for the war as Russia holds to its territorial ambitions

Russia and Ukraine exchange 144 POWs each in prisoner swap

On China-Russia border, new bonds are forged against U.S. over Ukraine

Updates from key battlefields: Grim outlook for the war as Russia holds to its territorial ambitions

Russia and Ukraine exchange 144 POWs each in prisoner swap

On China-Russia border, new bonds are forged against U.S. over Ukraine

Kyiv and Moscow have traded 144 prisoners each in an exchange that saw the return of some Ukrainian fighters who defended the Azovstal steel plant during a brutal siege before Russia seized control of Mariupol. The youngest Ukrainian prisoner released was 19 and the oldest was 65, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. He promised to “do everything to bring every Ukrainian man and woman home.”

Russian forces are continuing their offensive around Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, where regional governor Serhiy Haidai said 15,000 civilians remain as evacuation efforts continue. “The city itself is under constant fire,” Haidai said.

NATO leaders are meeting Thursday in Madrid for a third and final day. President Biden announced at the gathering Wednesday that the United States will increase its military presence in Europe, citing Russia’s invasion. The new deployments will include a permanent headquarters for the U.S. 5th Army Corps in Poland.

Here’s what else to know

Russian President Vladimir Putin still intends to capture most of Ukraine, an ambition that is likely to make the war more protracted, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines said Wednesday. The most likely scenario for the near future is an extended conflict with no significant Russian breakthrough, Haines added, characterizing the outlook as “pretty grim.”

Here are some updates from across the country:

Lysychansk: Some 15,000 civilians remain in this eastern city, which has become the focus of Russian bombardment in Luhansk, the regional governor told local media Wednesday. Evacuation efforts are intermittently interrupted by Russian shelling, he added, and Ukrainian forces are fighting Russian invaders on the city’s outskirts.

Kremenchuk: Putin denied responsibility for a strike on a shopping mall that killed at least 20 people in this central Ukrainian city. He falsely claimed Wednesday that the Russian military does not hit civilian targets and does not conduct indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population. Eyewitnesses who spoke to The Washington Post described the devastation after the missile attack.

Mykolaiv: At least five people were killed Wednesday in a Russian attack on this southern city, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, adding that all 10 missiles targeted civilian infrastructure. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its forces targeted a military base near Mykolaiv used to train foreign fighters.

Kherson region: Ukrainian fighters in recent weeks have been steadily regaining control of this southern region, in a sign the Russian military may be overextended on a front line that stretches about 300 miles. Moscow is trying to assert more control over this strategically key area, and Russian-backed authorities here said they are gearing up for a referendum on Kherson joining Russia.

David Stern, Annabelle Timsit and Isabelle Khurshudyan contributed to this report.

Russia and Ukraine each exchanged 144 soldiers on Wednesday in a swap that Ukrainian authorities called the largest prisoner exchange since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in February.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate said 95 of the 144 fighters it brought home had been captured from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where they had waged a weeks-long last stand before Russian forces captured the southern port city in mid-May.

Forty-three of those fighters are members of the controversial Azov Regiment, the agency said in a statement posted to Telegram on Wednesday. Others included members of various branches of the military, citizen volunteers and a police officer.

They were swapped for 144 fighters from Russia and the Russia-backed, self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, head of the DPR, said in a statement on Telegram.

Many of the Ukrainians returned from captivity with serious injuries, including gunshot and shrapnel wounds, burns, fractures and amputated limbs, the Ukrainian statement said. The statement added that the fighters were receiving emergency medical and psychological care.

Pushilin said many of the soldiers loyal to Russia who had been freed were also injured and “need urgent qualified medical assistance.”

“The enemy turned out to have very valuable military personnel,” Pushilin said.

Tetyana Kharko, the sister of a captured Ukrainian soldier and member of a group representing the relatives of those who fought in Azovstal, confirmed that several fighters had returned home.

“We are very happy to see their smiles, their eyes,” Kharko said in a video posted to Telegram. “We are waiting for each and every defender, I am eagerly waiting for my brother, waiting for every hero who was defending our country.”

Zina Pozen contributed to this report.

HEIHE, China — On the bank of the Amur River across from Russia, Wang Xuzhen sat scrubbing some shoes on a sunny afternoon.

Wang, 67, has lived for decades within sight of Russia here on China’s northeastern fringe, but she has never felt moved to take the short ferry ride to see Blagoveshchensk. She recalls how frightening the fortified border was before exchanges began in the 1980s. She tells her grandchildren not to forget a Russian massacre of Chinese residents more than a century ago. Near the water, a sign urges vigilance against spies.

Despite the enduring wariness across the river, Wang is clear where she stands. When it comes down to it, she says, Russia and China are on the same team, resisting what she sees as America’s global meddling. She says Ukraine should have accepted its place in Russia’s sphere of influence instead of courting the United States and NATO.

“I support Russia,” she said. “Two neighbors have to stick together so they aren’t bullied.”

Wang’s outlook mirrors that of many of her compatriots. Around the world, ideological lines are hardening. In the United States, politicians and lay citizens alike increasingly view international affairs through the lens of great-power competition against China and Russia. The same is the case in China, where many see the Ukraine war as a proxy conflict with the United States.

The latest: NATO leaders are meeting Thursday in Madrid for a third and final day. Kyiv and Moscow have also traded 144 prisoners each in an exchange that saw the return of some Ukrainian fighters who defended the Azovstal steel plant.

The fight: A slowly regenerating Russian army is making incremental gains in eastern Ukraine against valiant but underequipped Ukrainian forces. The United States and its allies are racing to deliver the enormous quantities of weaponry the Ukrainians urgently need if they are to hold the Russians at bay.

The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Russia has used an array of weapons against Ukraine, some of which have drawn the attention and concern of analysts.

Photos: Post photographers have been on the ground from the very beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work.

How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.

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