Moment Ukrainian soldier kisses his wife after being freed during Russia and Ukraine's swap of over 300 more prisoners

Daily Mail​

25-05-2025

A Ukrainian prisoner of war broke down in tears as he lovingly kissed his wife after he was freed in an exchange with Russia today.
Serviceman Vitaly embraced his wife Olena 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.
He was one of several hundred soldiers to have been swapped only hours after a major Russian drone-and-missile attack struck the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other regions, killing at least 13 people and injured dozens.
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.
Crowds welcomed the soldiers home, who were draped in the bright colours of the Ukrainian flag.
Others held up photos of missing loved ones to the returned servicemen, hopeful they might be able to tell them anything about the men pictured.
Medics were also at the scene to attend to the POWs as the soldiers filed out from buses to an undisclosed location.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the exchange, saying on X on Sunday that '303 Ukrainian defenders are home.'
He was one of several hundred soldiers to have been swapped in the third and last part of a major exchange that reflected a rare moment of cooperation
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'.
The POW exchange was the latest of scores of swaps since the war began but also the biggest involving Ukrainian civilians.
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.
Ukrainian officials described last night's onslought as the largest aerial assault since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the Kremlin firing 367 drones and missiles.
In all, Russia used 69 missiles of various types and 298 drones, including Iranian-designed Shahed drones.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the strikes.
For Kyiv, the day was particularly somber as the city observed Kyiv Day, a national holiday that falls on the last Sunday in May, commemorating its founding in the 5th century.
Zelenskyy 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 United States and Europe has not materialized in ways to deter Russia.
'These were deliberate strikes on ordinary cities,' Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that Sunday's targets included Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Cherkasy regions.
'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.'
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.
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 eight, 12 and 17.
Twelve people were injured in the attacks, it said. 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.
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 said she was grateful her daughter and grandchildren hadn't joined them for the weekend.
'I was trying to persuade my daughter to come to us,' 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,' 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.'
Battles have continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed, and neither country has relented in its deep strikes.
Russia's Defense Ministry quoted Yaroslav Yakimkin of the 'North' group of Russian forces as saying 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,' Yakimkin said, adding that Russian forces have taken Marine and Loknya in Ukraine's northeastern 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 Putin was reportedly flying over the Kursk region in a helicopter when the area came under intense Ukrainian drone attack during his visit.
Putin's helicopter was 'virtually at the epicenter of repelling a large-scale attack by the enemy's drones,' said Yuri Dashkin, described as commander of a Russian air defense division.