Ukraine updates: Russia attacks Avdiivka en masse — mayor

Ukraine has returned 100 prisoners from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Twitter.

"Another 100 Ukrainians are back home in Ukraine. National Guard, Border Guards, and Armed Forces. The majority of them are Mariupol defenders," he wrote.

Meanwhile, Russia also said it had secured the release of 100 of its prisoners of war. Russian Defense Ministry said its men would be brought to Moscow for rehabilitation in military medical centers.  

Last month, Russia accused Ukraine of shooting down a military plane carrying 65 of its own soldiers, with Moscow saying they were set to be freed in a prisoner swap but providing little evidence they were on board.

Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi has been removed from his position, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Thursday. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later said he had appointed Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, to lead the army.

On social media, Zelenskyy wrote that he had a meeting with Zaluzhnyi and told him that it was time for someone new to lead the army. He had asked the general to remain "on his team," Zelenskyy added.

In his own statement, Zaluzhnyi said he had had an "important and serious conversation" with Zelenskyy and that a decision had been made to change battlefield tactics and strategy.

Russia must stop the forcible transfer of children from Ukraine, provide information about those already taken and ensure they are returned home, a UN committee has said.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, a panel of 18 independent experts, pressed Russia on the deportation allegations during a regular review of its record last month.

In their conclusions, the experts urged Russia to "put an end to the forcible transfer or deportation of children from occupied Ukrainian territory."

The experts also demanded that Moscow "provide information about the precise number of children taken from Ukraine and about whereabouts of each child."

Ukraine says 20,000 children have been forcibly transferred to Russia since war broke out in February. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called it "genocide." Russia denies the allegations.

The roughly 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) line of contact has shifted little during recent months of wintry weather. But as the two-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion approaches, Moscow is launching concerted efforts to capture territory.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made an urgent plea for more military aid to Ukraine and warned of the dire consequences of a Russian victory, shortly before leaving for Washington.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Scholz warned Ukraine's allies against reducing military support for the embattled country, which has been fighting a full-scale Russian invasion for nearly two years.

"Our message is clear: We have to do our utmost to prevent Russia from winning. If we don't, we might soon wake up in a world even more unstable, threatening and unpredictable than it was during the Cold War," Scholz wrote.

"Despite our support, Ukraine could soon face serious shortages in arms and ammunition. Some financial commitments have already run out, and others need to be extended. The long-term consequences and costs of failing to stop Putin's aggression would dwarf any of the investments that we are making now," he warned.

Scholz's is scheduled to meet with US Presdient Joe Biden at the White House on Friday to discuss military aid for Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East and the NATO summit this summer. He also plans to meet with members of the US Congress and US business leaders.

Russian oil giant Rosneft says it has been told that Germany's Economy Ministry is considering expropriating shares in the business. 

The Reuters news agency on Wednesday reported that Berlin was preparing for a possible nationalization of Rosneft's German activities, including its 54.17% stake in Berlin's Schwedt refinery.

However, while the government is reportedly laying the groundwork, it is not yet believed to have made a final decision.

German officials put the refinery under a trusteeship in September 2022 in light of Russia's fully-fledged invasion of Ukraine.

Rosneft has said it will adopt all measures to protect the rights of its shareholders, adding that such an expropriation would be unprecedented in Germany and would damage investment security in the country forever.

The Central Election Commission of Russia has rejected the presidential candidacy of liberal opposition figure and anti-war activist Boris Nadezhdin. 

The commission justified its decision on Thursday, citing a large number of incorrect signatures from supporters. 
Along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, three other candidates will be running in the election, although they are seen as having no chance of defeating the incumbent.

Another full six-year term for Putin, who first became president in the year 2000, would extend his rule into the 2030s. 

The 60-year-old Nadezhdin had been seen as the best hope for the opposition. He plans on challenging the commission's decision in the Supreme Court.

Nadezhdin obtained significantly more signatures than the required 100,000.
From a random sample of 60,000 signatures, the commission said 9,147 were declared invalid. 

Moscow's troops are pushing en masse toward the frontline town of Avdiivka, according to the local mayor, intensifying their monthslong effort to seize the industrial center.

Russia has invested heavily in capturing the town, which has been a flashpoint since it briefly fell to Kremlin-backed separatists in 2014.

"Unfortunately, the enemy is pressing from all directions. There is not a single part of our city that is more or less calm," mayor Vitaly Barabash told state media.

"They are storming with very large forces," he added.

Seizing Avdiivka would represent a much-needed victory for Russia in the run-up to the second anniversary of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the March presidential election.

Fewer than 950 people from an estimated pre-war population of some 33,000 remain in Avdiivka, a town dominated by a huge coking plant. 

The town sits in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims as part of Russia, along with four other Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims it has annexed. 

Barabash described the fighting as "very hot" and "very difficult."

"The situation in some directions is simply unreal," he said.

Ukraine's armed forces reported Thursday that its troops had fended off 40 enemy assaults around Avdiivka over the previous 24 hours.

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