Ukraine updates: 10 held by Russia, Belarus return to Kyiv

A photo of Ukrainian citizens arriving home from Russian captivity last week

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked the Vatican for its help in freeing 10 Ukrainians from prison in Russia and Belarus.

The freed included Nariman Dzhelyal, a leader of the Crimean Tatars, and two priests.

Five of those held by Russia were originally arrested in Belarus, Russia's close ally, including on charges of providing intelligence about Russian military movements to Kyiv.

Meanwhile, the United States is to provide Ukraine with $150 million worth of weapons and ammunition, including HAWK air defense interceptors and 155-millimeter artillery munitions, Reuters news agency cited two US officials as saying. The package is due to be unveiled on Monday, they said.

Also, a researcher has told the United Nations Security Council that fragments of weapons removed from the battlefield have "irrefutably" come from North Korea, which has been accused of supplying arms to Russia.

Here are the latest developments from Russia's war in Ukraine on Saturday, June 29.

Next US aid package to Ukraine includes air defense missiles — report

The Biden administration will provide Ukraine with $150 million (€140 million) worth of weapons and ammunition, including HAWK air defense interceptors and 155-millimeter artillery munitions, Reuters news agency reported, citing two US officials.

The White House is due to announce the package on Monday, the officials said, following repeated requests by Kyiv for air defense support.

Ukraine's military has said it needs the technology to prevent aerial attacks by Russia on its energy facilities.

The US began shipping HAWK interceptor missiles to Ukraine in 2022 — an upgrade to the shorter-range shoulder-launched Stinger air defense systems.

The new package will include other munitions and equipment to support Ukraine's defense needs, the sources added.

The military aid comes from a mechanism that allows the US president to quickly transfer defense goods and services from domestic stocks to support allies.

Several Ukrainians freed from Russian detention, aided by Vatican

Ten Ukrainians, including a politician and two priests, who were held captive by Russia and Belarus have returned home, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

He thanked the Vatican for its mediation in the release of the civilians.

Some of those released have been in prison since 2017, Zelenskyy said, arrested in Russian-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine that at the time were run by Moscow-backed separatists.

One of the freed captives was Nariman Dzhelyal, a leader of the Crimean Tatars, who was taken a year before Moscow's forces invaded. He was detained from where he lived in Crimea, despite the peninsula being illegally annexed by Russia a few years earlier.

Five of those liberated had been held in ex-Soviet Belarus, Moscow's closest ally, which allowed the Kremlin to use its territory to help launch the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged hundreds of prisoners throughout the nearly two-and-a-half-year conflict, typically in one-for-one swaps. But the release of civilian prisoners is rarer.

Some 3,310 Ukrainians have already been released from Russian captivity, according to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. But many thousands, both civilians and military personnel, remain imprisoned.

mm/kb (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)