Ukraine War: Russia relies on massive artillery fire
Created: 06/30/2022Updated: 06/30/2022 06:37
By: Marvin Ziegele
Prisoner exchange
: Russia and Ukraine exchange around 300 prisoners.
Artillery shelling
: Russia wants to weaken Ukrainian positions in the Donbass during the Ukraine war.
Editor
's note: You can read all the news about the Ukraine conflict in this news ticker.
Some of the information comes from warring factions and cannot be directly checked independently.
Russia's advance in eastern Ukraine continues.
Donbass could fall soon.
The news ticker on Thursday.
Kyiv – The Russian military is relying on massive artillery fire in the Donbass industrial area to weaken Ukrainian positions.
Ukrainian artillery is outnumbered despite some modern guns arriving from the west.
Fighting is currently going on for the city of Lysychansk, and Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from neighboring Sievjerodonetsk.
The previous pressure on Russia in the Ukraine war is not enough, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, pointing out that on Wednesday alone ten Russian rockets were fired at the Ukrainian city of Mikolajiv.
"And all were aimed at civilian targets," he said.
Ukraine News: Exchange of 300 prisoners
According to their own statements, the Ukrainian army and the Russian side have exchanged almost 300 prisoners in the past 24 hours.
That would be the largest prisoner exchange since the beginning of the war.
144 people returned to Ukraine, said Zelenskyy.
The oldest is 65 and the youngest is 19.
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Among the released Ukrainian soldiers are 95 fighters who, until a few weeks ago, were defending the hard-fought Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol, which has since been conquered by the Russians.
According to Ukrainian sources, it was the largest exchange of prisoners since the beginning of the war.
The separatist leader Denis Puschilin, on the other hand, spoke of 144 pro-Russian and Russian fighters who had been released from Ukrainian captivity.
Ukraine war: Putin's "special operation is going according to plan"
A building destroyed by artillery fire in Mariupol.
© imago-images
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More than four months after Russia's war of aggression began, Putin again claimed that hostilities were going according to plan.
"The work is quiet, rhythmic, the troops are moving and reaching the lines that have been set for them as milestones," he told reporters in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat.
"Everything is going according to plan." The war is officially described by Russia as a "special operation".
(marv/dpa)