‘Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports’, says Zelenskyy, condemning Moscow’s disorganisation in swapping of PoWs and troops’ remains. What we know on day 1,215

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia sent Ukraine at least 20 of its own dead soldiers in recent exchanges with Kyiv , describing it as a result of Moscow’s disorganisation in carrying out large swaps of wounded PoW’s and remains of troops. Zelenskyy said that an “Israeli mercenary” fighting for Moscow was among the dead Ukraine had received. Officials did not disclose the identities of the bodies: “They threw the corpses of their citizens at us. This is their attitude toward war, toward their soldiers. And this is already documented. Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports,” he said. He said the Russian side insisted the dead were all Ukrainians.

Zelenskyy has also accused western firms of supplying Russia with “machine tools” used to make weapons, in remarks made public Saturday. He said companies from Germany, the Czech Republic, South Korea and Japan were among them, as well as one business “supplying a small number of components from the United States.” He said most of the companies supplying tools to Russia were from China, but that dozens of western firms were also culpable: “We have passed on all this information to all countries, our partners, everyone … We strongly urge everyone to impose sanctions on these companies,” the Ukrainian leader added.

The Ukrainian president also called on Ukraine’s western partners to allocate 0.25% of their GDP to helping Kyiv ramp up weapons production and said the country plans to sign agreements this summer to start exporting weapon production technologies. In remarks released for publication Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was in talks with Denmark, Norway, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Lithuania to launch joint weapon production. He also said on Saturday he was planning staff changes in Ukraine’s diplomatic corps and also in government institutions to boost the country’s resilience. He gave no time frame for the decisions.

Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a leading Belarus opposition figure, was freed on Saturday after more than five years in prison , in the most significant move so far by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko to try to ease his isolation from the West. Lukashenko has been shunned by the West for years and faced sanctions after brutally crushing pro-democracy demonstrations in 2020 and then allowing Vladimir Putin, his close ally, to launch part of his 2022 invasion of Ukraine from Belarusian territory. The release came just hours after Belarusian authorities announced that Lukashenko met with US president Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, in Minsk.

In the Donetsk region, Russian strikes on Saturday on key towns on the eastern front of the war in Ukraine killed at least one person . The Russian military said its forces had captured another small village in its slow advance westward through Donetsk region. Russian forces struck Sloviansk and Kramatorsk – two cities that Moscow will target as its forces press on. Donetsk region Governor Vadym Filashkin said one person died and three were injured in Sloviansk. In Kramatorsk, officials said at least one person was trapped under rubble and a number of other residents were injured.

In the north, another person died in a drone attack in the north near the Russian border, Ukrainian officials said . A mass drone attack on the town of Nizhyn near the Russian border killed one person and damaged local infrastructure. Reports from Kharkiv region in the north-east suggested Russian troops were closing in on the city of Kupiansk. On Friday, the Russian Defence Ministry said it had captured the village of Moskovka, just outside the city of Kupiansk.

Deportation of Ukrainians is part of a continuing “cleansing” operation of the occupied territories , reports the Guardian’s Shaun Walker in Zaporizhzhia, which may accelerate if US-led attempts to push Russia and Ukraine into a peace deal result in the freezing of the current frontlines, solidifying Russian control over the territory Moscow has seized over the past three years.