Russia and Ukraine swap prisoners hours after massive missile-and-drone attack
Russia and Ukraine have swapped hundreds more prisoners in the third and last part of a major exchange that reflected a rare moment of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire in the more than three years of war.
Hours earlier on Sunday, the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other regions came under a massive Russian drone-and-missile attack that killed at least 12 people and injured dozens.
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Ukrainian officials described it as the largest aerial assault since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A local resident cries standing amid the rubble of her house ruined after Russia's air attack in Khmelnytskyi region (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Russia's Defence Ministry said each side brought home 303 more soldiers, after each released a total of 307 combatants and civilians on Saturday, and 390 on Friday — the biggest swap of the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the exchange, saying on X on Sunday that '303 Ukrainian defenders are home'.
He noted that the troops returning to Ukraine were members of the 'Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service, and the State Special Transport Service'.
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In talks held in Istanbul earlier this month — the first time the two sides met face to face for peace talks — Kyiv and Moscow agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners of war and civilian detainees each.
The exchange has been the only tangible outcome from the talks.
– The largest aerial attack of the war
The scale of the onslaught in Sunday's attack was stunning — Russia hit Ukraine with 367 drones and missiles, the largest single aerial attack of the war, according to Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Air Force.
In all, Russia used 69 missiles of various types and 298 drones, including Iranian-designed Shahed drones, he told The Associated Press.
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There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the strikes.
For Kyiv, the day was particularly sombre as the city observed Kyiv Day, a national holiday that falls on the last Sunday in May, commemorating its founding in the fifth century.
Mr Zelensky said Russian missiles and drones hit more than 30 cities and villages, and urged Western partners to ramp up sanctions on Russia — a longstanding demand of the Ukrainian leader but one that despite warnings to Moscow by the US and Europe has not materialised in ways to deter Russia.
Firefighters search for victims following a Russian air attack in Zhitomir region, Ukraine (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
'These were deliberate strikes on ordinary cities,' Mr Zelensky wrote on X, adding that Sunday's targets included Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Cherkasy regions.
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'America's silence, the silence of others in the world, only encourages' Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said.
'Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped. Sanctions will certainly help.'
Russia's Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said its air defences shot down 110 Ukrainian drones overnight.
– Another 'sleepless night'
Sounds of explosions boomed throughout the night in Kyiv and the surrounding area as Ukrainian air defence persisted for hours in efforts to shoot down Russian drones and missiles.
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At least four people were killed and 16 were injured in the capital itself, according to the security service.
'A difficult Sunday morning in Ukraine after a sleepless night,' Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X, adding that the assault 'lasted all night'.
Fires broke out in homes and businesses, set off by falling drone debris.
In Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, the emergency service said three children were killed, aged 8, 12 and 17.
Twelve people were injured in the attacks, it said.
Firefighters search for victims following a Russian air attack in the Khmelnytskyi region, Ukraine (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
At least four people were killed in the Khmelnytskyi region, in western Ukraine.
One man was killed in Mykolaiv region, in southern Ukraine.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said a student dormitory in Holosiivskyi district was hit by a drone and one of the building's walls was on fire.
In Dniprovskyi district, a private house was destroyed and in Shevchenkivskyi district, windows in a residential building were smashed.
The scale of Russia's use of aerial weapons aside, the attacks over the past 48 hours have been among the most intense strikes on Ukraine since the February 2022 invasion.
– A village engulfed in smoke and rubble
In Markhalivka, just outside Kyiv where several village homes were burned down, the Fedorenkos watched their ruined home in tears.
'The street looks like Bakhmut, like Mariupol, it's just terrible,' said 76-year-old Liubov Fedorenko, comparing their village to some of Ukraine's most devastated cities.
She told the AP she was grateful her daughter and grandchildren had not joined them for the weekend.
'I was trying to persuade my daughter to come to us,' Ms Fedorenko said, adding that she told her daughter, 'After all, you live on the eighth floor in Kyiv, and here it's the ground floor'.
'She said, 'No, mum, I'm not coming'. And thank God she didn't come, because the rocket hit (the house) on the side where the children's rooms were,' Ms Fedorenko said.
Ivan Fedorenko, 80, said he regrets letting their two dogs into the house when the air raid siren went off.
'They burned to death,' he said. 'I want to bury them, but I'm not allowed yet.'
– Despite POW swaps, no let up in the war
The POW exchange was the latest of scores of swaps since the war began but also the biggest involving Ukrainian civilians.
Still, it has not halted the fighting.
Battles have continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) front line, where tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed, and neither country has relented in its deep strikes.
Russia's Defence Ministry quoted Yaroslav Yakimkin of the 'North' group of Russian forces as saying on Sunday that Ukrainian troops have been pushed back from the border in the Kursk region, which Putin visited days ago.
'The troops continue to advance forward every day,' Mr Yakimkin said, adding that Russian forces have taken Marine and Loknya in Ukraine's north-eastern Sumy region, which borders Kursk, over the past week, and were advancing in the Kharkiv region around the largely destroyed town of Vovchansk.
Speaking on Russian state TV on Sunday, a Russian serviceman said that Mr Putin was reportedly flying over the Kursk region in a helicopter when the area came under intense Ukrainian drone attack during his visit.
Mr Putin's helicopter was 'virtually at the epicentre of repelling a large-scale attack by the enemy's drones,' said Yuri Dashkin, described as commander of a Russian air defence division.
He added that Russian air defence units shot down 46 drones during the incident.
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