Russia stepped up its military and political campaign on Thursday to seize Ukrainian territory, marshalling Russian army reservists to fight, preparing for votes expected to annex occupied territories and launching deadly new attacks. Pro-Moscow authorities in four Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine are planning voter referendums starting Friday on whether to become part of Russia — a move that could extend the war and has followed the Kremlin’s playbook since it annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea after a similar referendum. Most of the world considers the 2014 annexation of Crimea illegal. On the battlefield, Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanged missile and artillery barrages as both sides refused to concede ground despite recent military setbacks for Moscow and the reckoning over the invasion of the country after nearly seven months of war. In Russia, anti-war activists who demonstrated on Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of troops said they would hold more demonstrations over the weekend. Voting in Ukraine’s Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions is scheduled to last until Tuesday. Foreign leaders called the votes illegal and non-binding. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was a “fraud” and “noise” to distract the public. In Luhansk, billboards reading “With Russia Forever” and “Our Choice-Russia” appeared on the streets, while volunteers handed out ribbons in the colors of the Russian national flag and posters reading: “Russia is the future. Take part in the referendum!”. Russian missile attacks on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia have left one dead and five injured, Ukrainian officials said. Officials in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk said Ukrainian shelling killed at least six people. Ukraine announced a high-profile prisoner swap early Thursday. It followed protracted efforts to free Ukrainian fighters defending a steel factory in Mariupol. President Volodymyr Zelensky said 215 Ukrainians and foreign citizens held by Russia had been released with the help of mediation efforts by Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Ukraine frees a prominent Putin ally and 55 others Saudi Arabia says Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman secured the release of 10 prisoners of war through the mediation of Russia and Ukraine. While hostilities continued, the two sides managed to agree to a major prisoner exchange. At the same time, Putin began calling up reserve troops to supplement his forces in Ukraine. Kirill Tymoshenko, a deputy in the Ukrainian president’s office, said a hotel in Zaporizhia had been hit and rescuers were trying to free people trapped in the rubble. The governor of the mainly Russian-held Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, said Russian forces had targeted infrastructure and destroyed apartment buildings in the city, which remains in Ukrainian hands. The mayor of the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, Alexei Kulemzin, said Ukrainian shelling hit a covered market and a minibus. Overnight, one person was killed during Russian shelling in Nikopol, across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor. Hours before Thursday’s attacks, Ukrainian officials announced the exchange of 215 Ukrainian and foreign fighters – 200 of them for one man, a Putin ally. Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, confirmed that pro-Russian Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk was part of the exchange. Putin has repeatedly spoken of Medvedchuk as a victim of political repression. Media reports claimed that before the Russian invasion, Medvedchuk was considered a leading candidate to lead a puppet government that the Kremlin hoped to install in Ukraine. Among the freed fighters were Ukrainian defenders of a steel factory in Mariupol during a long Russian siege, along with 10 foreigners, including five British citizens and two US military veterans, who had fought with Ukrainian forces. Some of those freed had faced death sentences in Russian-held areas. A video on the BBC news website on Thursday showed two of the released Britons, Aiden Ashlin and Sean Pinner, talking on a plane on their way home. “We just want to let everyone know that we are now out of the danger zone and coming home to our families,” Ashlyn said in the video, as Pinner added: “By the skin of our teeth.” MURAT YUKSELIR / THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: GRAPHIC NEWS The non-profit Presidium Network, which is helping with aid in Kyiv, said Ashlyn, Pinner and three other Britons were safely at home and reunited with their families on Thursday. The continuation of Russian missile attacks and the start of a partial mobilization of Russians in the armed forces suggest that the Kremlin is seeking to dispel any notion of weakness or waning determination to achieve its wartime goals in light of recent battlefield losses and other setbacks that undermine the aura. of Russian military power. Putin’s order on Wednesday to partially mobilize reserves to bolster his forces in Ukraine sparked rare protests in dozens of Russian cities and was derided in the West as an act of weakness and desperation. More than 1,300 Russians were arrested in the anti-war protests, according to the independent Russian human rights group OVD-Info. More protests were planned for Saturday. Video on Twitter from the Russian city of Neryungri showed men emerging from what appeared to be a stadium that appeared to be used as a military mobilization center. Before boarding the buses, the men hugged family members waiting outside, many crying and some covering their mouths with their hands in grief. A man held a child to the window of a bus for one last look. Putin’s partial call was short on details, so much so that the Russian military announced Thursday that it had set up a call center to answer questions from individuals and organizations. Concerns about a potentially wider scheme have led some Russians to try to buy plane tickets to leave the country. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the mobilization was necessary because Russia was “de facto facing all of NATO,” a reference to military aid and other support given by alliance members to Ukraine. Speaking in New York on Thursday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock praised Russian anti-war protesters and added that no one inside the country can continue to turn a blind eye to what is happening in Ukraine because “every Russian will now be in danger of being drafted in this war.” Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Fesser went further, offering concrete support to defectors. He told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that anyone who “courageously opposes Putin’s regime and therefore puts himself in greater danger” can apply for asylum in Germany. Escalating tensions, a senior Kremlin official on Thursday repeated Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons if Russian soil is attacked. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said on his messaging app that strategic nuclear weapons are one of the options for securing Russian-controlled territory in eastern and southern Ukraine. The remark appeared to serve as a warning that Moscow could also target Ukraine’s Western allies. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken responded on Thursday, calling on every member of the UN Security Council to “send a clear message” to Russia that it must stop its nuclear threats in the war in Ukraine. Russia’s neighbors have been concerned about a possible threat from Russia. Estonia said training exercises began Thursday for nearly 2,900 reservists and volunteers, in apparent contrast to Moscow’s announcement of a partial military mobilization. Russia embarked on its largest mobilization since World War II. Protests in 38 Russian cities left 1,400 people arrested on September 21, according to a monitoring group, and flights out of Russia sold out after Putin’s announcement. Reuters This content appears as provided to The Globe by the original wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.
