Released Russian prisoner feared getting shot moments after leaving jail

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The Russian-British political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza said he was convinced he would be shot in the moments after his recent release from a Russian prison, citing a scathing note he had earlier written to Vladimir Putin. 
Mr Kara-Murza was one of 16 prisoners freed from Russia on Thursday in a historic deal between the Kremlin and the West. Eight Russian prisoners were repatriated in return. 
Speaking at a press conference in Germany, Mr Kara-Murza said after two years in detention his newfound freedom felt surreal.
He said he thought he was going to die in prison and that after refusing to go through the formalities of asking Putin for clemency his fate had been sealed. 
He said he was taken into a room with a large portrait of Putin hanging from the wall and told to sign a document admitting guilt and remorse. But he refused and instead wrote that Putin was a murderer. 
“Obviously I’m not guilty of anything. I’m not gonna sign this paper,” he said.
He was awoken on Sunday at 3am and told he had 20 minutes to collect his belongings. 
“I thought I was going to let out and be shot.”
Mr Kara-Murza was speaking alongside Russian opposition activist Ilya Yashin and  Andrei Pivovarov who were also freed.
Mr Yashin welled up with tears as he described his incarceration, adding that had mixed feelings about the deal.
The exchange represented a “difficult dilemma”, Russian liberal opposition politician Ilya Yashin told journalists in Germany.
It encourages Putin to take more hostages,” said Mr Yashin, who had been serving a jail sentence for denouncing Moscow’s Ukraine offensive.
That’s it for today’s live blog. Here’s a rundown of the main stories:
Roman Abramovich played a role in the negotiation of a historic prisoner swap that saw 16 people freed by Russia on Thursday.
The Russian oligarch reportedly relayed a message to Vladimir Putin broaching the idea of an exchange after meeting with Rodger Carstens, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs.
Mr Abramovich then signalled to Mr Carstens that the Russian president was “open” to negotiations of a swap including Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Mr Navalny died in captivity in February, before negotiations were completed.
On Thursday, US journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan returned to the United States in the swap that included 24 people.
The White House said it negotiated the trade with Russia, Germany and three other countries on the deal, which was worked on in secrecy for more than a year. 
Mr Kara-Murza said over more than two years he was only able to call his wife once.
He said Andrei Pivovarov was only able to speak to his son on the phone three times.
“This is not only done to us, it is also done to our families”, he said. 
The prisoner exchange between Russia and the West represented a “difficult dilemma”, Russian liberal opposition politician Ilya Yashin told journalists in Germany Friday.
“It encourages Putin to take more hostages,” said Mr Yashin, who was freed as part of the deal from a jail sentence for denouncing Moscow’s Ukraine offensive.
Freed Russian dissident Ilya Yashin said he is looking forward to “finally” hugging his parents again.
“I’m very happy to be free”, he said, adding: “I hope very soon my parents are going to be here so that I can finally hug them again.”
Mr Yashin said he spoke to the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and told him he understood the complexities of deciding to “free a murderer” in exchange for 16 innocent people “that have never committed a crime”
“I know it’s a difficult dilemma”, he said.
Vladimir Kara-Murza said each of the 16 prisoners freed from Russia had an FSB agent sitting next to them on the plane.  
“My FSB agent said ‘look you’re going to see your home country for the last time.”
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British citizen freed in the prisoner swap on Thursday, said Russia’s war in Ukraine is “just the tip of the iceberg” – but he urged people not to conflate Putin’s regime with Russia.
The “Kremlin’s propaganda wants to make you believe that the whole country supports the aggressive war in Ukraine and the regime – this is a lie,” he said.
Mr Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for spreading “false” information about the Russian army and being affiliated with an “undesirable organisation”, said he has “no doubts” that he will return to Russia.
“All of us are going to come back to Russia,” the dissident said, adding that Russia will one day be a “normal, civilised, European country”.
During a press conference, freed Russian dissident Andrei Pivovarov said sitting there in front of a room of journalists “leads to a lot of emotion”. 
“We’re very happy”, he said.
But Mr Pivovarov noted there are still thousands of people still in Russian prisons who “suffer terrible conditions” and “need our assistance.”
“We should do it step by step and we should not wait, we should take action to support those people that are under pressure,” he said.
He added, however, that Thursday’s prisoner exchange is a “sign of light in a way”.
“I think they would be happy to hear that it’s possible to be saved,” he said.
Mr Pivovarov said he would continue to work towards a Russia that is “free and democratic” and where everyone “could be free in Russia”.
Donald Trump has called the prisoner swap between the US and Russia a “win” for Vladimir Putin as he continued to offer baseless speculation over the details of the agreement.
Evan Gershkovich, a US journalist, two other Americans and a green card holder are back in the US after being freed by Putin as part the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War.
Seeking to downplay President Biden’s success in securing the deal, the Republican nominee told Fox Business: “The Russians made a great deal. I’m not going to criticize it, because it’s good to have them home, but they got a phenomenal deal, and that sets a very bad precedent”.
It is a “win for Putin,” Trump added. 
France on Friday welcomed a historic prisoner swap between Russia and the West and urged Moscow to set free French citizen Laurent Vinatier and other people still “arbitrarily” detained in the country.
“France shares the sentiment of the families and allied governments following the release of several political prisoners held in Russia,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Our thoughts are with those who remain arbitrarily detained in Russia, including our compatriot Laurent Vinatier. France calls for their immediate release.”
Slovakia and Hungary rebuffed a European Commission suggestion that they could replace lost Russian oil supplies via an alternative route through Croatia saying it was too costly.
Supplies from Russia’s biggest oil exporter Lukoil through Ukraine were halted in July following a ban by Ukrainian authorities on Lukoil using the Druzhba pipeline, which links Russia to eastern Europe.
Hungary and Slovakia earlier this month asked the European Commission to step in and mediate as the threatened their security of supply.
But they are rejecting the European Commission’s proposal to use spare capacity on the JANAF Adriatic pipeline in Croatia to supply both countries with oil not sourced in Russia.
“Croatia is simply not a reliable country for transit,” Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said. “Oil transit prices were raised fivefold since the outbreak of the [Ukraine] war by Croatia.”
Vladimir Putin greeted in Spanish the children of Russian spies who were returning home from Slovenia where they had been caught posing as Argentian art dealers.
“When the children walked down the plane — they don’t speak Russian — and Putin just greeted them in Spanish. He said ‘Buenas noches,’” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The children’s parents, Artem and Anna Dultseva, were sentenced in a court in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, on Wednesday after pleading guilty to spying charges.
Ukraine said it had received the bodies of 250 killed soldiers in one of the largest exchanges of remains since Russia invaded in February 2022.
The two sides regularly exchange soldiers’ bodies as well as captured prisoners of war in rare diplomatic dealmaking between Moscow and Kyiv.
“As a result of repatriation operations, the bodies of 250 fallen Ukrainian defenders were returned to Ukraine,” Kyiv’s Coordination Centre for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement.
“This is one of the biggest” operations of its kind, Centre Spokesman Petro Yatsenko told AFP.
Kyiv said it handed over the remains of 38 Russian soldiers in the deal, which was mediated by International Red Cross.
Kremlin denies speculation its release of 24 Western prisoners could form part of negotiations over ending the war, writes Joe Barnes.
The historic prisoner swap between Russia and the West was not linked to peace talks with Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Friday.
Almost two dozen political prisoners held by Russia were released to their families, while Vladimir Putin welcomed back eight Russians freed in exchange, including an FSB hitman who had been held in Germany.
There was speculation that the complex feat of diplomacy could be part of a ceasefire negotiation between Moscow and Kyiv.
But Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, denied any link and said potential talks on Ukraine would be based on “different principles”.
Read the full story 
A $15m Russian helicopter was destroyed by a small Ukrainian drone 50km inside of Russia, Ukrainian and Russian sources said.
The attack on the 12-ton Russian Mi-8 helicopter near Russian-occupied Donetsk potentially marked the first time a Ukrainian drone has taken down a military helicopter.
The attack occurred about 50km from the front line, an unprecedented distance for such a strike.
The explosive-carrying two-pound drone rammed the helicopter when it was near the ground, causing it to crash and burn, Russian military bloggers wrote.
“Caught at the moment of take-off,” a Russian blogger posted on social media, sharing photos and videos of the burning helicopter.
Such attacks are exceptionally difficult as the helicopters fly faster than 150 miles per hour at altitudes exceeding thousands of feet.
Observers confirmed the downing of the helicopter, which was performing attack, transport, and medical evacuation missions.
Read the full story
Ukraine has taken delivery of a second Turkish-built navy corvette, officials said on Friday, although they did not say specifically how the warships might be used in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, attended the launching ceremony of the Ada-class corvette during a visit to Turkey, the Ukrainian presidency announced on its website.
The corvette Ukraine already had is currently undergoing sea trials.
Turkish Ada-class ships are typically able to strike planes, other ships and submarines.
Ukraine, which has coastlines on the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov, had a small navy at the time of Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion.
A family of Russian sleeper agents flown to Moscow in the prisoner swap were so deep undercover that their children found out they were Russians only after the flight took off, the Kremlin said on Friday.
“Before that, they didn’t know that they were Russian and that they had anything to do with our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“And you probably saw that when the children came down the plane’s steps that they don’t speak Russian and that Putin greeted them in Spanish. He said ‘buenas noches’.”
Ilya Yashin, a prominent Kremlin critic and Russian citizen, shared a photograph following his release in the first post of a prisoner on social media since the group was released on Thursday.
The 41-year-old was jailed for eight years over his criticism of the war in Ukraine. He was also charged with spreading false information about the Russian army.
“With that hysterical sentence, the authorities want to scare us all but it effectively shows their weakness,” Mr Yashin has said of his case.
He wrote alongside the photo on social media: “I’ll tell you everything soon. In the meantime, just thanks to everyone who worried. I hug you all!”
Ukraine launched more long-range drone attacks than Russia for the first time since the war began in July. 
Russia deployed 426 Shahed-type drones into Ukraine, while Kyiv retaliated with over 520 drones, according to Ukrainian figures. 
France on Friday welcomed the prisoner swap between Russia and the West and urged Moscow to set free French citizen Laurent Vinatier and other people still “arbitrarily” detained in the country.
“France shares the sentiment of the families and allied governments following the release of several political prisoners held in Russia,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Our thoughts are with those who remain arbitrarily detained in Russia, including our compatriot Laurent Vinatier. France calls for their immediate release.”
France said it paid tribute “to the courage of the men and women who, in Russia as elsewhere, defend freedom of speech and opinion despite the risks involved.”
The Kremlin has warned a group of prisoners freed on Thursday in the biggest such swap since the Cold War to go into witness protection programmes.
“Let the traitors now feverishly pick up new names and actively disguise themselves under witness protection programmes,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said.
The Kremlin added that it hoped those who had left Russia, whom it described as “enemies”, would stay away, according to the state-run TASS news agency.
Evan Gershkovich gave an interview after exiting the plane in Maryland on Thursday evening, speaking about the detention of political prisoners in Russia. Watch below.
 
A small Ukrainian drone reportedly shot down a 12-ton Russian Mi-8 helicopter near Russian-occupied Donetsk, potentially marking the first time a drone has taken down a military helicopter.
The explosive-carrying drone rammed the $15m helicopter when it was near the ground, causing it to crash and burn, Forbes reported, citing Russian bloggers. 
“Caught at the moment of take-off,” a Russian blogger reported.
The attack occurred about 50km from the front line, much further than previous attacks have reached. 
Photos and videos on social media showed the burning helicopter. 
Observers confirmed the downing of the helicopter, which was being used for attack, transport, and medical evacuation missions.
For the Kremlin, this deal looks weak, if not even a one-sided exchange. 
The Kremlin has traded their 16 top hostages – alleged “spies”, journalists, opposition leaders and human rights activists – all carefully curated over the past few years for one FSB assassin thug, two low-grade spies based in Slovenia and five crooked IT nerds and businessmen imprisoned for money laundering and smuggling.
It’s hardly a rerun of the like-for-like 1968 spy exchange that became the Hollywood Film Bridge of Spies when US pilot Gary Powers was swapped for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel on a fog-cloaked bridge in Berlin.
The release of Mr Gershkovich is the most stunning. He was the Kremlin’s prize asset. Arrested in March 2023 for spying, he was only found guilty by a kangaroo court in Yekaterinburg two weeks ago.
A triumphant Russian media gave the case wall-to-wall coverage and yet the Kremlin has tossed aside his 16-year prison sentence and freed him.
Perhaps for Putin, the return of Vadim Krasikov from Berlin is worth the price. He is the assassin who shot dead a former Chechen commander in 2019 and Putin’s favoured FSB security service wanted him back. What else does he know?
Ukraine has shunned the Kremlin’s request for a ceasefire this summer as a scam designed to give Russian forces a breather to re-arm and then charge again but, although Putin has turned Russia’s economy and society into a war machine, cracks are appearing. 
Thursday’s prisoner swap adds to this sense of growing Russian weakness. Even loyal Kremlin propagandists appear stunned, asking why Putin agreed to an uneven swap that boosts the pro-Ukraine Democrats.
New footage recorded in Russia shows the moments before journalist Evan Gershkovich was released.
The Kremlin on Friday said possible talks over the conflict in Ukraine were based on “completely different principles” from negotiations over a prisoner swap deal that saw 24 people freed on Thursday.
“If we talk about Ukraine and more complex international problems, there are completely different principles,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that “the work there is conducted in a completely different mode”. 
A list of names written on a cocktail napkin helped lead to the release of 16 prisoners by Russia in the biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War, it has been revealed. 
Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian journalist and one of the world’s leading investigators of Russian clandestine operators, met with Rodger Carstens, the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, in a Georgetown restaurant to propose a way forward for the negotiations with Russia. 
At the restaurant back in April of 2023, he jotted down a two-column list of Russian prisoners who the US could trade. 
The list was relayed from Mr Carstens to Anthony Bliken, the US Secretary of State, and ultimately formed the basis of the trade agreement between the US and Russia. 
Watch Mr Grozev explain the feat to CNN below.
How a list of names on a cocktail napkin led to today’s historic prisoner swap: @christogrozev talks about his key meeting one year ago – and says his friend Alexei Navalny’s death led to more people being freed today. pic.twitter.com/LfQf3N5ujL
A Russian drone hit a bus in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region early on Friday, injuring six construction workers, including one who was in a critical condition, the regional governor said.
Governor Oleh Syniehubov said the incident took place near the town of Derhachi, about 40 km (25 miles) from Hlyboke one of the border settlements where Russia opened a new front in the war in May.
Ukraine’s military halted the Russian offensive there, rushing in reinforcements after Russia pushed up to 10 km (six miles) into the border areas.
In this photograph, Mykhailo, a Ukrainian serviceman embraves his girlfriend Viktoria who arrived on a train from Kyiv to visit him, at a railway station in Kramatorsk, eastern Donetsk region.
Antony J. Blinken, the US Secretary of State, carries an index card in his suit pocket every day with the names of more than 70 Americans wrongfully detained overseas.
The revelation comes after the release of 16 prisoners by Russia, including three Americans and one green card holder.
Mr Blinken’s list has those who have been freed written in red, while those still imprisoned are written in black. 
Before the release of Evan Gershkovich, Mr Blinken told Sergei V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, that the spying charges against him were “outrageous”. 
Donald Trump has criticised Thursday’s prisoner exchange, suggesting the United States had received a bad deal tantamount to extortion.
The former president posted a series of questions on social media around the terms of the deal, wondering whether the US was paying Russia cash and whether the US had released murderers.
“Just curious because we never make good deals, at anything, but especially hostage swaps,” he said. 
A total of 24 prisoners were exchanged in a deal between the Kremlin and the White House on Thursday, including three Americans and eight people returning to Russia.
Trump, who often touts his experience in business and making deals, said: “They are extorting the United States of America.
They’re calling the trade ‘complex’ – That’s so nobody can figure out how bad it is!”
The deal that secured the release of 16 prisoners from Russia was negotiated mostly by spies and sometimes through secret messages hand-delivered by couriers, according to reports.
After months of negotiations, a turning point is said to have occurred on June 25 during a meeting between a group of CIA officers and their Russian counterparts. 
The Americans proposed an exchange involving two dozen prisoners held in jails in Russia, the US, and various European countries. 
This far larger and more complex deal than previously considered would provide both Moscow and Western nations with greater incentives to agree.
But what else happened in this fateful build-up to the swap? Read more here.
In these photographs, Ukrainian servicemen fire a mortar during a military exercise in the Kherson region. 
The United Nations and Nato have reacted to the release of a number of prisoners by Russia. 
UN rights chief Volker Turk expressed his “relief” regarding the prisoner swap.
“All journalists & rights defenders detained solely for doing their jobs must be freed,” said the United Nations Human Rights Office in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. 
Nato praised the release of prisoners, attributing it to the close cooperation of alliance members.
“We welcome the release today of several political prisoners from Russia. The deal that secured their freedom was negotiated by several Nato allies working together,” spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah said.
Residents of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine are fleeing the city as Russian forces make significant advances on multiple fronts in Donetsk.
Moscow has asserted control over four villages east of Pokrovsk in the past week. 
While Ukraine has not verified these claims, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Thursday that Pokrovsk has become Russia’s primary target.
Russian troops have reached the edge of Toretsk, where the regional governor noted last week that only 3,500 people remained, just over 10 per cent of the prewar population. 
Since then, authorities and humanitarian organisations have evacuated more residents.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US marine Paul Whelan, and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva touched down in Maryland last night.
Authorities in the Russian-controlled city of Sevastopol in Crimea are evacuating a nine-storey residential building after it was hit by a fragment of an ATACMS missile, the Russian-appointed governor of the city said on Friday.
Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said no one had been hurt in the incident and warned locals not to approach other fragments of missiles intercepted by air defences in what he described as a “massive” overnight attack on the city.
A tearful phone call was held in the Oval Office on Thursday night as the freed prisoners spoke to their families for the first time.
“This is momma. Do you hear me? It’s your mom,” Evan Gershkovich’s mother told her son in the emotional two-minute video of the virtual reunion, posted by President Joe Biden’s social media account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“We just want to say how overwhelmed we are,” Joe Biden told the released detainees as the families stood around the presidential Resolute Desk. “You’ve been wrongfully detained for a long time, and we are glad you are home.”
Every parent, child, spouse, and loved one who joined me in the Oval Office today has been praying for this day for a long time. In just a few short hours when our fellow Americans return home, those prayers will be answered. pic.twitter.com/2xglu30HE9
On Thursday, the freed prisoners were greeted by US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. 
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US marine Paul Whelan, and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva were met by cheers from family and friends as they disembarked a plane, before each embracing Mr Biden and Ms Harris.
“It feels wonderful, it was a long time coming,” Mr Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrews near Washington at around 11:40 pm (3.40 GMT).
“Alliances make a difference. They stepped up and took a chance for us,” Biden said of the deal, which also involved Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Belarus on the other side.