A local government official in the northern city of Chernihiv has said a catastrophe is unfolding for the population as Russian troops deliberately target food stores in a near-month-long siege.

An airstrike this week destroyed a bridge over the Desna River, which was a crucial route to bring in food and other aid from Ukraine-controlled territory further south.

Humanitarian help, medicines and food used to be delivered into the city via this bridge, city council secretary Olexander Lomako told The Associated Press in an audio message.

He estimated that more than 130,000 people are left in the city out of a pre-war population of 285,000 but that Ukraine remains in full control.

Chernihiv is under total control of Ukrainian army, Ukrainian flag waves here, he said.

Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk says Ukraine and Russia exchanged a total of 50 military and civilian prisoners Thursday.

Vereshchuk said in a statement on social media that Ukraine exchanged 10 captured occupiers for 10 Ukrainian troops.

She also said that Ukraine had handed over 11 civilian Russian sailors who Ukraine had rescued from a sinking ship off Odesa, in return for 19 Ukrainian civilian sailors from a Ukrainian search and rescue boat. The boat will also be returned via Turkey, she said.

There have previously been reports of local prisoner exchanges on a smaller scale than those announced by Vereshchuk. They included a swap of nine Russian soldiers for a captured Ukrainian mayor. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday two prisoner swaps had taken place but didn't provide details of when they happened or who was involved.

 

'Over 400,000 Ukrainians forcibly taken to Russia'
Ukrainian Ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova said at a briefing Thursday that the Ukrainians were taken to by Russian troops from Mariupol and other besieged Ukrainian cities. The number includes 84,000 children. She says they are held in primitive conditions with little food and water.

Donetsk Region Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko also said that Russians are taking Ukrainians' passports and take them to filtration camps place where Russian FSB counterintelligence agency officers conduct security checks before moving them to various distant areas in Russia.

Kyrylenko said that Mariupol's residents had been long deprived of information and the Russians feed them false claims about Ukraine's defeats to persuade them to move to Russia. Russian lies may influence those who have been under the siege, he said.

Russian officials reported Wednesday that over 384,000 Ukrainians had voluntarily travelled to Russia where they were being offered accommodation and payments.