April 10, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

The Pentagon is still working to determine the scale of a leak of classified information that has occurred in recent weeks, Chris Meagher, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, said Monday. 

CNN has reported that some of the leaked documents included intelligence related to the war in Ukraine.

Meagher said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was first briefed on the leak on April 6 and began “convening senior leaders on a daily basis” the next day. 

Over the weekend, US officials engaged with allies and partners — some of whom were also implicated in the document leak, Meagher said.

The Pentagon team is also working to determine if the leak of classified material includes the Defense Department’s legislative affairs, public affairs, policy, general counsel, intelligence and security, and joint staff offices, Meagher said. 

Meagher said the team is a “coordinated effort amongst several different components of DOD” who were all working to “get our arms around everything that has to do with” the leak.

Meagher declined to say who specifically was in charge of that team and overseeing those efforts.

Valeria Karpylenko, a border guard from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, is among the military personnel released during Monday's prisoner swap.

She is visible in videos released by the Ukrainian government showing prisoners of war returning home.

Karpylenko fought alongside her husband in the besieged Azovstal steel plant. On May 5, 2022, she and her husband were married in an Azovstal bunker — but just three days later, he was killed, according to a Facebook post by Karpylenko at the time. She had promised that she would survive the siege and live for them both.

Some background: CNN reported earlier that Russia and Ukraine exchanged more than 200 prisoners of war in their latest swap.

Ukraine's presidential office head, Andriy Yermak confirmed that 100 Ukrainians were returned home. They included "military, sailors, border guards, and National Guard servicemen."

Ukraine's General Staff of the Armed Forces said Monday evening that its main focus is repelling Russian forces in Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivak and Marinka in the east.

It said over twenty attacks were repelled in the last 24 hours in those areas.

Russia launched 21 airstrikes and five missile strikes across Ukraine, including four in Kramatorsk from S-300 air defense systems.

Russia is also increasing the number of checkpoints and patrols in several occupied areas, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Over the last day, Ukrainian Defense Forces say they shot down a Russian Mi-24 helicopter and six UAVs.

Russia's Defense Ministry says that 106 Russian servicemen "who had been held captive in mortal danger, were returned from Kyiv-controlled territory" Monday. The servicemen will be flown to Moscow and provided with medical and psychological assistance.

Ukraine's presidential office head, Andriy Yermak confirmed there was a prisoner swap saying 100 Ukrainians were returned home. They included "military, sailors, border guards, and National Guard servicemen."

He said that "defenders of Mariupol, Azovstal and Hostomel" who were "seriously injured and have diseases" are among those released, adding it's a key priority for President Volodymyr Zelensky to "return all our people."

Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters on the Treatment of Prisoners of War provided more details on the Ukrainian servicemen who were returned.

"Almost half of the released prisoners have serious injuries, illnesses or have been tortured. The youngest of the liberated defenders is 19 years old," it added.

Separately from the prisoner of war exchange with Russia, "in accordance with the Geneva Conventions," Ukraine also handed over five "more severely wounded" prisoners including "the only woman who was held in Ukrainian captivity," according to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Their repatriation took place without any conditions from the Russian side, according to the organization.

Two more prisoners were also released who are Muslim. This was part of a proposal to exchange Muslims "all for all" on both sides as a sign of respect during the holy month of Ramadan.

And earlier on March 24, Ukraine repatriated five seriously wounded Russians, according to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, posted a video of his visit to the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on his Telegram channel Monday. The video shows Pushilin driving into the tattered city with mangled military vehicles on the sides of the road and buildings with windows blown out or reduced to rubble.

Pushilin says he went to the city center where Russia's Wagner private military group "installed our flags" in the place where the administrative building was. He blamed Kyiv for the damage. 

Kyiv has blamed the damage on Russia. Moscow's troops have switched to so-called "scorched Earth" tactics in the eastern city of Bakhmut, and are destroying buildings and positions with airstrikes and artillery fire, said Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian Land Forces, in a Monday statement posted on Telegram by the Ukrainian military. 

Pushilin also met with a Russian official who maintains contact with voters in the DPR and he says they discussed organizing humanitarian aid points from Russia. In September, pro-Russian authorities held so-called referendums in four regions of Ukraine. The votes have been universally dismissed as “a sham” by Ukraine and Western nations.

In the video, Pushilin said Wagner soldiers are evacuating people, and "we are providing accommodations for them in the DPR." He said they take 15 to 45 people out at once. Ukraine has described these types of evacuations as forced.

Pushilin has claimed more than 75% of Bakhmut is now under the control of Russian forces, Russian state media TASS reported Monday, citing an interview on the state television channel Russia 24. 

Though Pushilin reportedly said it was too early to talk about the complete liberation of the city, he said fierce battles were ongoing on its Western flank, according to TASS. 

Pushilin also said the liberation of the nearby town of Marinka, which has been decimated by Russian shelling, had been delayed due to Ukraine constantly bringing in reserve troops. TASS reported he also claimed Russian forces were making serious advances in the Avdiivka area, which the Ukrainian military warned last month was at risk of becoming a “second Bakhmut.” 

Twenty-four more children from the region have returned home on Monday, after being taken illegally to Russian territory, Kherson authorities said.

"Today I met them in Kherson to talk to them and present them with nice gifts," Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration, said in a Telegram post.

"This was one of the most difficult rescue missions. The Russians interrogated the children for 13 hours and later forced them to participate in a propaganda report," he said. CNN is unable to independently verify this claim.

However, a February report from US State Department-backed Conflict Observatory by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab alleged Moscow's involvement in an expansive network of camps where kids underwent “political reeducation."

"We will definitely bring home all Ukrainians illegally detained by Russia!" he said, but did not share additional details about this latest "rescue mission." 

More on family reunification efforts: This comes after a group of 31 Ukrainian children was reunited with their families over the weekend — months after they were taken from their homes and moved to Russian-occupied territories.

Allegations of widespread forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia form the basis of the International Criminal Court's war crimes charges against Russian President Vladimir Putin and a senior Russian official, Maria Lvova-Belova.

The Office of Ukraine's President recently estimated the total number of Ukrainian children forcibly removed from their homes is at least 20,000. Thousands of cases are already under investigation, Kyiv has said. Russian denies it is doing anything illegal and says it is bringing Ukrainian children to safety.

Russia has turned to airstrikes and artillery as it attempts to take the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut using "scorched earth" tactics, according to Ukraine's top land commander.

Elsewhere, the fallout from the leak of classified US intelligence documents continues, with the Kremlin denying any involvement.

Here are the latest headlines:

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed accusations that Moscow may have been involved in the Pentagon leak of classified documents.

Asked during a regular call with journalists on Monday whether Russia or pro-Russian sources could be behind the leak, Peskov criticized what he said was a tendency to blame Moscow.

Peskov also said the leaks are “quite interesting” and that he cannot rule out that the US could have been eavesdropping on its key allies.

“The fact that the United States has long begun surveillance of various heads of state, especially of European capitals, has repeatedly surfaced and caused scandalous situations,” Peskov said. “Therefore, this cannot be ruled out.”

The leaked Pentagon documents, which include highly classified information on US support for Ukraine and key US allies such as Israel, were posted online.

US officials have confirmed the authenticity of some of the leaked documents, which also allege the US was eavesdropping on key allies, including South Korea, Israel, and Ukraine.

A Ukrainian Defense Ministry representative on intelligence accused Russia of altering the highly classified Pentagon documents leaked online in recent weeks. 

"In recent decades, Russia's most successful intelligence operations have been carried out in Photoshop," Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, said in a national televised interview, according to remarks posted on the directorate's website on Saturday. 

The ministry's intelligence representative said the needs of the Ukrainian army have been "discussed at all levels" and that it's "no secret that Ukraine is asking for aircraft, tanks, ammunition and other things." 

The comments echo earlier claims by Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, who said on his Telegram channel Friday he believes the Russians are behind the purported leak.

Podolyak said the documents that were disseminated are inauthentic, have “nothing to do with Ukraine’s real plans” and are based on “a large amount of fictitious information.”

As CNN reported earlier, bad actors are using the leaked documents to spread disinformation, analysts say. The document with casualty numbers, for example, was altered in recent weeks to more than halve the number of Russian deaths, before being spread on pro-Russian Telegram channels.

Asked earlier about the images circulating on Twitter and Telegram, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told CNN in a statement that “we don’t have the slightest doubt about direct or indirect involvement of the United States and NATO in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine."

What was in the classified documents: The highly classified Pentagon documents leaked online cover everything from US support for Ukraine to information about key US allies like Israel. 

Some of the documents, which US officials say are authentic, expose the extent of US eavesdropping on key allies, including South Korea, Israel and Ukraine.

Some of the documents divulge key weaknesses in Ukrainian weaponry, air defense, and battalion sizes and readiness at a critical point in the war, as Ukrainian forces gear up to launch a counteroffensive against the Russians – and just as the US and Ukraine have begun to develop a more mutually trusting relationship over intelligence-sharing.

As CNN reported earlier, Ukraine has already altered some of its military plans because of the leak, a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN.