Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Sunday, January 12, 2025, discover the latest news about this conflict.
Zelensky offers North Korean, Ukrainian prisoner swap
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that kyiv is ready to hand over North Korean prisoners of war to leader Kim Jong-un if he can arrange an exchange for Ukrainian prisoners in Russia.
Zelensky announced Saturday that the Ukrainian military had captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk region, the first since the Pyongyang regime deployed some 10,000 troops last fall.
“Ukraine is ready to hand over its soldiers to Kim Jong-un if he can arrange their exchange for our fighters who are detained in Russia”, Ukrainian President Vladimir Putin said in a message on the social network X on Sunday. “In addition to the first captured North Korean soldiers, there will undoubtedly be others. It is only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture more,” he said.
Volodymyr Zelensky added that other options could be considered for North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return to their country. “Those who express their desire to promote peace by exposing the truth about this war in Korean will be given this opportunity,”, he said.
Russian Army Says It Has Conquered Two Towns on Eastern Front
The Russian army claimed Sunday the capture of two towns in eastern Ukraine, where it has been advancing slowly but steadily for months against fewer Ukrainian troops.
In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said that units of the “South” group had captured the village of Yantarne, in the Donetsk region (east). This town is located about ten kilometers southwest of Kurakhove, a major Ukrainian stronghold that Moscow claimed to have seized on Monday after weeks of fighting.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000On Saturday, the Russian army said it had also advanced northwest of Kurakhove. In addition, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that it had captured the town of Kalinove in the Kharkiv region (northeast).
This location is on the western bank of the Oskil River, which in this area has long marked the front line between the two sides. But a local Ukrainian official announced Thursday that Russian forces had managed to establish a bridgehead by crossing the Oskil.
The Russian army had tried several times in recent months to cross this river, which passes through the disputed city of Kupiansk. Russian troops have advanced slowly but steadily on the front in 2024, without however achieving a major breakthrough. At the same time, nighttime drone attacks and bombings continue.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, the Ukrainian Air Force said it had shot down 60 Russian drones. Drone debris damaged several houses in the Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv, Sumy and Poltava, without causing any casualties, according to the source.
In the Kherson region (south), three people were injured by Russian drones, local Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday. In the same region, but in the part controlled by Moscow, a pensioner was killed and a man injured by a Ukrainian drone strike, the local official appointed by Moscow, Vladimir Saldo, said on Telegram.
In Russia, in the part of the Kursk region controlled by kyiv since an offensive in August, two Russian airstrikes heavily damaged a school in Sudja on Saturday evening, reported a local Ukrainian official, Oleksiy Dmytrachkivsky.
“A woman suffered a laceration of her arm, she died in the morning,”, he told Ukrainian television, specifying that more than 80 elderly people were temporarily living in this building because of the fighting. According to him, about 2,000 civilians still live in the area controlled by the Ukrainian army in the Kursk region.
Finally, in the Russian region of Saratov, the fire at an oil site continued on Sunday, the governor, Roman Busargin, said on Telegram, four days after a Ukrainian drone attack. According to this source, firefighters are working “around the clock” to extinguish the blaze, whose surface area and smoke have diminished, the governor assured.