War briefing in Ukraine: Thousands of Ukrainian prisoners join the fight against Russian forces | Ukraine

While Russia continues to strengthen its troops in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine is trying to alleviate the shortage of operational forces with the help of its prisoners. More than 3,000 prisoners have been released on parole and assigned to military units after parliament approved such recruitment in a controversial mobilization law last month, Ukraine’s Deputy Justice Minister Olena Vysotska told the Associated Press. The news agency visited a rural penal colony in southeastern Ukraine, where several inmates were offered a chance at parole in exchange for serving on the battlefield. “You can put an end to this and start a new life,” they were told by a recruiter, a member of a volunteer assault battalion. Ukraine does not disclose details of troop numbers or casualty figures, but front-line commanders openly admit they face serious manpower shortages.

Viktor Orbán, one of Europe’s most pro-Russian politicians, is expected to travel to Kyiv on Tuesday. to meet Volodymyr Zelensky. It is the Hungarian Prime Minister’s first visit to his neighbouring country since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion and takes place while Hungary is taking over the rotating EU Council Presidency. In contrast, Orbán’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has visited at least five Travel to Russia since the war began. Hungary has repeatedly questioned the need for military support to Ukraine, calling instead for a ceasefire. Last week, EU governments agreed to use €1.4bn (£1.2bn) of profits from frozen Russian assets to send arms and other aid to Ukraine, bypassing the Hungarian veto that has so often held up EU decisions on Ukraine.

A Briton who founded a charity to support Ukrainian soldiers has died in battle against Russian forces. his organization said. Peter Fouché founded Project Konstantin, which provides supplies such as drones and food to Ukrainian soldiers, evacuates civilians and delivers humanitarian aid to conflict zones near the front lines. Fouché had previously helped build a field hospital in Kyiv before founding Project Konstantin, and later enlisted as a contract soldier in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the charity’s website says.

Patriotic Russian poems praising Vladimir Putin and supporting his war in Ukraine turn out to be translations of Nazi verses in the 1930s and 1940s. Gennady Rakitin’s 18 poems have gained a large following in Russia over the past year and have been mentioned in poetry awards, but wags have revealed they invented Rakitin and simply translated poems such as Führer and odes to Nazi stormtroopers, replacing references to Germany with Russia. “We read collections of Z poems and saw blatant Nazism there. We suspected that they probably wrote exactly the same things in Nazi Germany, and we were right,” the group behind the project said in written responses to questions from the Guardian.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its forces had taken control of two villages in eastern Ukraine. The Russian ministry said its forces controlled the settlements of Stepova Novoselivka in Kharkiv region and Novopokrovske in Donetsk region. Statements by the Ukrainian military partially refuted that Russian claim. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in an evening report that its troops had repelled 17 attacks in the Kupiansk sector near Kharkiv, including in the area of ​​Stepova Novoselivka. It said fighting was raging near Synkivka further west. Russia has announced a series of gradual successes since taking the town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region in February. It was the second day in a row that Moscow announced the capture of new localities.