What to expect from Zelensky's UN addresspublished at 21:12 British Summer Time 21 September 2022

21:12 BST 21 September 2022

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Kyiv

The nearly seven-month war in Ukraine has dominated the UN General Assembly, on a day when the Russian president announced a partial military mobilisation to support his war.

Hours earlier, President Biden delivered a strongly worded statement, slamming President Putin for starting a “brutal, needless” conflict, saying it shamelessly violated the main principles of the UN charter.

Russia, Biden said, was trying to extinguish “Ukraine’s right to exist as a state” and had to be held accountable for any war crimes found to have been committed in the country.

The US is Ukraine’s biggest supporter, and Biden has vowed to keep helping the Ukrainians for as long as it takes.

Next, it’s the Ukrainian president’s turn to speak. What can we expect?

President Zelensky is likely to thank countries for their help - military, financial and humanitarian - but say the Ukrainians need more to recapture territory.

Putin’s announcement and plans by Russian-backed officials to hold referendums on joining Russia in occupied regions of Ukraine, widely condemned in the West, have escalated tensions in the conflict.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to President Zelensky, told me earlier: “We understand what resources we need.

"We understand that, today, it will be easier to talk with our partners in terms of accelerating the provision of weapons.”

More now from UK Health Minister Robert Jenrick, who earlier announced that his constituent Aiden Aslin was one of the five British nationals released from Russian captivity.

Speaking to BBC News this evening, the Tory MP said he'd spoken to Aslin's family and they're "absolutely over the moon". He also revealed the prisoners of war are expected to arrive home as soon as tomorrow.

Praising UK PM Liz Truss, Jenrick said she - both in her current role and her previous one as foreign secretary - "raised the matter repeatedly with [Ukrainian] President Zelensky... and was exceptionally helpful".

Asked about the involvement of the Saudi Crown Prince, and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, Jenrick said "in this instance" he was "grateful to the role played by Saudi Arabia". MBS, as he's commonly known, helped broker the prisoner exchange - but has been criticised for human rights abuses.

Saudi Arabia have a "relationship with Russia," Jenrick explained, "in part because they are another integral element of Opec - the oil grouping of nations - and so have regular and deep negotiations and discussions with Russia".

Image source, Getty Images

Some 1,335 people have been arrested in anti-mobilisation protests in 38 cities across Russia in a single day, according to a Russian human rights NGO.

According to OVD-Info, external, the greatest concentration of detainees was in St Petersburg and Moscow.

The NGO says protests have taken place across a number of cities following Russian President Vladimir Putin's partial mobilisation announcement - in which he called up hundreds of thousands of reservists to fight in Ukraine.

Unsanctioned rallies are illegal under anti-protest laws in Russia.

Read more on the story here.

Questions remain over why detainees have been released nowpublished at 20:29 British Summer Time 21 September 2022

20:29 BST 21 September 2022

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

The release of 10 foreign nationals – including five Britons – held by Russian-backed forces in Ukraine prompts a question: Why now?

Negotiations about their fate have been going on for months. So why did the Kremlin choose today to sign off on a deal, on the same day that Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation of military reservists and rattled his nuclear sabre?

Was Russia’s president trying to sow confusion among world leaders meeting at the United Nations in New York, threatening on one hand and offering a gesture of goodwill with the other?

Diplomats said it was impossible to know if the two issues were linked. But they said at the very least the Kremlin wanted to change the narrative, to try to seize some kind of initiative after weeks of being on the back foot as it lost territory to Ukraine.

The Saudi Press Agency has now published a video of the prisoners of war arriving in Saudi Arabia on the way back to their respective countries.

In the 51-second clip, posted to Twitter, the men can be seen leaving the plane and shaking hands with various Saudi officials. The clip has no sound so we can't be sure what's being said.

The video appears to show the British nationals Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saaudun, the Moroccan national who was tried and jailed alongside them.

Emma Vardy
Ireland Correspondent

The pictures released by the Saudi Press Agency show the British men Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and John Harding, arriving off a plane appearing to be accompanied by a group of Saudi officials.

Aslin is seen shaking hands as he is greeted on the tarmac.

The pictures have been seen by family and friends of the men, who can hardly believe their release is really happening, and are just counting the minutes now until they arrive back on British soil.

As recently as yesterday, there were rumours on social media that the death sentence they had been facing had been carried out, and their families had been very much in the dark until now. They have faced many months living in fear that they would be killed.

Their ordeal now appears to be almost over.

Human rights group Amnesty International has put out a short statement following the release of 10 prisoners of war caught up in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Allan Hogarth, the head of advocacy and programmes at the charity, called the prisoner swap a "huge relief", branding their initial imprisonment a "sham judicial process apparently designed to exert diplomatic pressure on the UK".

He told PA news agency that the separatist Donetsk authorities - where the 10 were convicted - and their counterparts in Russia "are still believed to be unlawfully holding thousands of other detainees amid horrifying reports of torture".

"We call on them to immediately release all such detainees," he added.

Five of those freed are British nationals, including Aiden Aslin, who'd been sentenced to death.

The Saudi Press Agency has released images showing the prisoners of war that were released by Russia.

Earlier today, it was confirmed 10 detainees, including five British nationals, had been released following mediation by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The government has not confirmed the names of the five Britons released, but one of their MPs, Robert Jenrick, said Aiden Aslin was among them.

One of the pictures tweeted by the Saudi Press Agency appears to show the Britons Shaun Pinner, Aiden Aslin and John Harding.

Jessica Parker
Reporting from Brussels

In other news, EU ministers are to hold an emergency meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City.

It’s scheduled for 20:15 EST (01.15 BST).

Officials say it’s to coordinate the EU’s reaction to Putin's “new escalation” after he announced earlier today that military reservists would be sent to Ukraine as part of a partial mobilisation of Russian forces.

We've heard that Aiden Aslin is among five British nationals released in a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia.

Though the government has not confirmed the names of the other four people, here's what we know about the other known Britons captured by Russian-backed forces while fighting in Ukraine.

• Shaun Pinner, 48, from Bedfordshire, was captured and tried in a Russian proxy court alongside Aslin in June. Both were accused of being mercenaries and were sentenced to death. Their families insisted they were long-serving members of Ukraine's military.

Image source, Family/SWNS

The other three Brits we know of all appeared in the same Russian proxy court as Aslin and Pinner at a later date, in August. They were also accused of being mercenaries. Their next trial date is due in October.

• John Harding is in his 50s and is originally from Sunderland. He had been fighting alongside Ukrainian forces since moving to Ukraine in 2018.

• Andrew Hill, 35, from Plymouth, was fighting with Ukraine's International Legion.
• Dylan Healy, in his early-20s, is from Hungtingdon, Cambridgeshire. He had been volunteering in Ukraine as an aid worker when he was captured at a checkpoint in April, alongside Paul Urey, who died in July while being held by Russian-backed separatists.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has welcomed the safe return of five British nationals who were being held as prisoners of war by Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine.

"This brings to an end many months of uncertainty and suffering, including the threat of the death penalty, for them and their families, at the hands of Russia," he said.

He said that was "tragically" not the case for British man Paul Urey who was captured by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine, and died in detention in July.

“I would like to express my gratitude to President Zelensky and his team for their efforts to secure their release, and to HRH Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman and his team, for their assistance."

He reiterated a call on Russia to comply with international humanitarian law and not exploit prisoners of war and civilian detainees for political purposes.

More now on news that five British nationals who were being held captive by Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine are being released in a prisoner swap.

The UK government has not named them, though Aiden Aslin's MP, Robert Jenrick, confirmed he was among the released captives.

The BBC's Ireland correspondent Emma Vardy said the releases of the five British nationals had come as "surprising but extremely welcome news" to their friends and families in the UK.

Image source, FACEBOOK

Health Minister Robert Jenrick has confirmed that Aiden Aslin, who was sentenced to death after being captured by Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine is among those who have been released in a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia.

Aslin, 28, was captured along with Shaun Pinner in April while fighting with the Ukrainian Marines.

"Aiden’s return brings to an end months of agonising uncertainty for Aiden’s loving family in Newark who suffered every day of Aiden’s sham trial but never lost hope," Jenrick wrote on Twitter. "As they are united as a family once more, they can finally be at peace."

Prime Minister Liz Truss has confirmed five British nationals held by Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine have been released.

In a statement, she said it would end "months of uncertainty and suffering for them and their families."

She thanked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Saudi Arabia for helping to secure the release of the detainees.

"Russia must end the ruthless exploitation of prisoners of war and civilian detainees for political ends," she added.

The Saudi Arabian government has said Russia has released 10 prisoners of war following mediation by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The group is said to include American, British, Swedish, Croatian and Moroccan nationals, released as part of an exchange of POWs between Russia and Ukraine.

"The relevant Saudi authorities received and transferred them from Russia to the Kingdom and are facilitating procedures for their safe return to their respective countries," a statement from the Saudi foreign ministry said.

Several prisoner swaps have happened since the start of the conflict, with the largest prisoner exchange to date - 144 people - taking place in July.

While prisoner swaps are considered to be a routine part of warfare, countries can be reluctant to declare any concessions they have made to strike the agreement.

The UK Foreign Office said it could not comment on the Saudi statement.

Image source, Reuters

We're hearing more than 109 people across Russia have been detained after protesting against mobilisation, according to a human rights group.

The independent OVD-Info protest monitoring group told Reuters news agency it was aware of detentions in at least 15 different cities.

In Russia unsanctioned rallies are illegal under anti-protest laws.

Image source, PA

After meeting at the UN General Assembly in New York earlier, Prime Minister Liz Truss and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen say they strongly condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine.

In a statement they say they agree mobilisation in Russia was a "sign that Russia's invasion is failing".

"It is a statement of weakness," they said, adding they will continue to support Ukraine for "as long as it takes".

It also said they held discussions on EU-UK relations, including Northern Ireland.

If you're just joining us, you may have missed US President Joe Biden speaking at the UN General Assembly. Here's a rundown of the key points he made:

War in Ukraine

• Biden told delegates Russia had "shamelessly violated" the United Nations charter by invading Ukraine, accusing Moscow of causing a "brutal, needless war"
• Commenting on President Putin's mobilisation speech and nuclear threats, Biden said the world "should see these outrageous acts for what they are"
• He also accused Russia of wanting to "extinguish Ukraine's right to exist as a state" - but pledged that the UN would continue to "unequivocally condemn" Moscow's actions

Nuclear threats

• Biden urged all nations to recommit to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime, following Putin's threats against the West. He warned: "A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought"

Energy

• Appearing to reference the blame often placed on Russia for helping to create a global energy crisis, Biden said the US is working to ensure no nation is able to "use energy as a weapon" again

Human rights

• In his closing remarks, the US president acknowledged world leaders faced great challenges - especially in the field of human rights abuses. Insisting countries refrain from being "passive witnesses to history", he told them to instead be "authors of history"

Russia's largest defence company, Rostec, is to increase its arms production in response to Vladimir Putin announcing the mobilisation of army reservists, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

Tass quotes the state corporation as saying it has introduced a special work schedule where employees work overtime.

The firm employs two million people, according to the UK government.

Rostec also said it had been tasked with providing the Russian army with modern weapons, Tass reports.

Limits of what UN can do laid barepublished at 16:49 British Summer Time 21 September 2022

16:49 BST 21 September 2022

Sarah Smith
North America Editor

Moments ago, Biden highlighted the fact that 141 countries in the UN General Assembly came together to unequivocally condemn Russia’s actions.

He warned that the UN Charter, the very basis of the global rules-based order, was under attack.

But while the Ukraine war is dominating the UN General Assembly here in New York, the limits of what the UN can do when a member nation, Russia, with a permanent seat on the Security Council – and therefore a veto – invades another country are clear.