Ukraine

Sept 23 (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Friday it would downgrade diplomatic ties with Iran over Tehran's decision to supply Russian forces with drones, a move President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called "a collaboration with evil".

Zelenskiy said a total of eight Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles had been shot down so far in the conflict.

Ukraine and the United States accused Iran of supplying drones to Russia, a charge Tehran denies.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities Saturday as Kremlin-orchestrated votes continued in occupied regions of Ukraine to pave the way for their annexation by Moscow.

Zaporizhzhia Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said the Russians targeted infrastructure facilities in the Dnieper River city, and one of the missiles hit an apartment building, killing one person and injuring seven others.

The Russian forces also struck other areas in Ukraine, damaging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.

KIEV, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine and Russia have carried out their largest prisoner exchange since the start of the conflict on Feb. 24, the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said Thursday.

As a result, 215 Ukrainians, including 124 officers, returned home, the agency said.

Among those freed are servicemen from the Azov regiment which fought for Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant, as well as troops from the Ukrainian navy, the State Security Service, the State Customs Service and other agencies.

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanged missile and artillery barrages on Thursday as both sides refused to concede ground despite recent military setbacks for Moscow and the toll on the invaded country after almost seven months of war.

Russian missile strikes in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia left one person dead and five wounded, Ukrainian officials said. Officials in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk said Ukrainian shelling killed at least six people.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists Wednesday, taking a risky and deeply unpopular step that follows humiliating setbacks for his troops nearly seven months after invading Ukraine.

The first such call-up in Russia since World War II heightened tensions with the Western backers of Ukraine, who derided it as an act of weakness and desperation. The move also sent some Russians scrambling to buy plane tickets out of the country, and hundreds of people were arrested at antiwar demonstrations across the country.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans Tuesday to start voting this week to become integral parts of Russia. The concerted and quickening Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war following Ukrainian successes on the battlefield.

DONETSK, September 19. /TASS/: The Civic Chamber of the Donetsk People’s Republic has asked the republic’s leader Denis Pushilin and the People’s Council (parliament) to urgently call a referendum on accession to Russia. The message the chamber’s leader Alexey Kofman read out on Monday says: "We want Russia’s border to lie between us and Ukraine. We want to become part of one big Motherland - Russia - once again. The people of Donbass deserve it.

KYIV, Sept 19 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed there would be no let-up in Ukraine's fight to regain its territory as Kyiv said its troops had crossed a major river, paving the way for an assault on Russia's occupation forces in the eastern Donbas region.

Reflecting the dramatic change in momentum since Ukrainian forces routed Russian troops earlier this month in the northeast, U.S. President Joe Biden offered his strongest prediction so far that the Ukraine would win the war.

"They're defeating Russia," Biden said in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes".

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile struck close to a nuclear power plant Monday in southern Ukraine without damaging the three reactors but hit other industrial equipment in what Ukrainian authorities denounced as an act of “nuclear terrorism.”

The missile made impact within 300 meters (328 yards) of the reactors at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, blasting a crater 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) deep and 4 meters (13 feet) across, according to Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom.

LUGANSK, September 18. /TASS/: A Russian journalist was wounded in the city of Svatovo as a result of shelling from a HIMARS multiple rocket launcher by Ukrainian troops, the mission of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) to the Joint Control and Coordination Center said on Sunday.

"As a result of shelling of the city of Svatovo with the use of a US HIMARS multiple rocket launcher (two M31 GMLRS rockets were fired), a journalist of the Federal News Agency was wounded. The Vatra hotel was ruined, seven one-storey dwelling houses and a retail shop were damaged," it said.