Russia released an American military veteran on Tuesday, allowing his return to the US after four years of what his family and US officials allege was wrongful incarceration and abusive treatment that left him near death.

Robert Gilman, a 32-year-old Massachusetts teacher and former Marine, was freed after president Donald Trump said he spoke with Russian president Vladimir Putin about his release, which Trump said was “very much on a Humanitarian Basis.”

“We appreciate this decision, and the fact that Russia asked for no one in return – No exchange took place,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a photo on social media of a gaunt-looking Gilman draped in an American flag and surrounded by his family aboard an airplane.

The United Nations estimates that more than 16,000 civilians detained by Russia during its war in Ukraine are still being “deprived of their liberty,” many held incommunicado and on grounds that don’t comply with international law.

“Widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment” of both Ukrainian civilian detainees and prisoners of war by Russia are continuing, including sexual violence, said Claudia Fuentes Julio, the UN assistant secretary-general for human rights.

Since the full-scale invasion in 2022, Julio said, UN human rights staff have interviewed 910 Ukrainian prisoners of war and 403 civilian detainees following their release.

The UN has not been able to visit detention facilities in Russia, and its estimated figure of those held does not break down how many are adults or children.

Russian forces struck parts of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv overnight yesterday, according to officials.

One strike hit the grounds of a children’s hospital, leaving two craters and shattering windows, the State Emergency Service said. Children and medical workers were in bomb shelters and nobody was hurt, it added.

Emergency workers said two craters were formed at the site, and the building’s windows and a gas pipe were damaged.

Gas service workers were able to eliminate the leak.

Russia attacked Ukrainian cities with missiles, drones and glide bombs yesterday, killing at least 10 civilians, officials said.

Ukraine has handed proposals to US negotiators for a plan to end the war with Moscow, Volodymyr Zelensky announced, as he suggested that Russia would use its parliamentary election next month as a pretext to declare a new round of mobilisation.

“We have conveyed our proposals to the American side,” Zelensky said ⁠in his nightly video address.

“And the United States can help strengthen our defence, first and foremost with air ​defence, and put pressure on Russia so that its plans are different – to prepare for an end to the war ​rather than prolonging it.”

Zelensky offered no details on the proposals.

Moscow appears to be adopting increasingly aggressive strategies to recruit fresh troops for its war of attrition in Ukraine, as Vladimir Putin looks to make up for heavy battlefield losses.

Men are reportedly being snatched off Russian streets and students offered significant financial incentives to join drone units as Moscow looks to avoid another forced mobilisation.

Local officials have been issued recruitment quotas by the Kremlin and Moscow’s defence ministry as it looks to meet this year’s 409,000 target, sources familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.

Russians are given referral bonuses for encouraging others to sign up while officials exploit knowledge of potential recruits’ debts and legal problems to pressure them into signing up, the FT adds.

Romanian army divers ​destroyed two Gerbera-type drones drifting in the country’s Black Sea exclusive economic zone near the offshore gas project Neptun Deep, defence minister Radu Miruta said on Tuesday.

The Nato state ⁠shares a 614km (382 mile) land border with Ukraine and has seen Russian drones repeatedly breach its airspace over the last four years, as well as mines floating in the Black Sea across key trade and ⁠energy routes.

A civilian vessel working near the Neptun Deep offshore gas project spotted the drones yesterday, Miruta said. The minister did not specify the origin of the drones, but said Ukraine had confirmed they did not belong to its forces.

“For the safety of the shipping lane and the works being carried out around the platform, the decision was ⁠made to carry out a controlled destruction by detonation,” Miruta said.

“The defence ministry contacted Ukrainian partners, who confirmed that the systems do not belong to them.”

Nato states Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, which share the Black Sea with Georgia, Russia and Ukraine, have neutralised more than 150 mines drifting across crucial trade ‌lanes.

There are indications from Russia that it will not end the war and will use production of ballistic missiles to deploy them in the upcoming winter to break Ukraine’s resolve to fight, a Washington-based think tank has said.

“The Kremlin will not enter serious negotiations or make meaningful compromises on its demands as long as Putin believes that he has a viable military path to achieving his full objectives,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an analysis Monday.

“Ukraine’s Patriot shortages offer Russia an opportunity to cause very serious damage to Ukraine over the coming winter and will therefore contribute to delaying meaningful negotiations and protracting the war,” it said.

The ISW said: “Russia’s reprioritisation of production efforts toward ballistic missiles will support Russian efforts to use the upcoming winter to break Ukraine’s will to fight.”

Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces used ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea in an overnight attack which targeted the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.

A company said seven workers at its steel plant were killed and 21 injured.

In addition to the ballistic missiles, North Korea is preparing to deploy more of its troops to Russia, Zelensky said late Monday.

“Every step Russia takes – increasing ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilisation – all of this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation,” Zelensky said on social media.

Debris from likely intercepted Ukrainian drones has damaged six residential buildings in the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk, according to the mayor of the major commodities export hub.

Mayor Andrei Kravchenko said on Telegram that those injured were receiving medical assistance and a commercial building was also hit.

There were a number of unverified social media posts on Telegram purporting to show photos of a huge tower of flames arising from somewhere in Novorossiysk.

In Sevastopol in Russia-occupied Crimea, ​more ⁠than three dozen drones ‌were downed, the city’s governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Telegram.

A few houses were damaged ‌in the attack, but there were ‌no injuries, he added.