Kyiv: Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds more prisoners Saturday as part of a major swap that amounted to a rare moment of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire. The exchange came hours after Kyiv came under a large-scale Russian drone and missile attack that left at least 15 people injured.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s defence ministry said each side brought home 307 more soldiers Saturday, a day after each released a total of 390 combatants and civilians.
“We expect more to come tomorrow,” Zelenskyy said on his official Telegram channel. Russia’s defence ministry also said it expected the exchange to continue, though it did not give details.
Hours earlier, explosions and anti-aircraft fire were heard throughout Kyiv as many sought shelter in subway stations as Russian drones and missiles targeted the Ukrainian capital overnight.
In talks held in Istanbul earlier this month — the first time the two sides met face to face for peace talks since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion — Kyiv and Moscow agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners of war and civilian detainees each.
Difficult night
Officials said Russia attacked Ukraine with 14 ballistic missiles and 250 Shahed drones overnight while Ukrainian forces shot down six missiles and neutralised 245 drones — 128 drones were shot down and 117 were thwarted using electronic warfare.
The Kyiv City Military Administration said it was one of the biggest combined missile and drone attacks on the capital.
“A difficult night for all of us,” the administration said in a statement.
Posting on X, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called it “clear evidence that increased sanctions pressure on Moscow is necessary to accelerate the peace process.”
Meanwhile, the EU’s ambassador to Kyiv described it as “horrific.”
“If anyone still doubts Russia wants war to continue — read the news,” Katarina Mathernová wrote on the social network.
The debris of intercepted missiles and drones fell in at least six Kyiv city districts. According to the acting head of the city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, six people required medical care after the attack and two fires were sparked in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district.
The Obolon district, where a residential building was heavily damaged in the attack, was the hardest hit, with at least five wounded in the area, the administration said.
Yurii Bondarchuk, a local resident, said the air raid siren “started as usual, then the drones started to fly around as they constantly do.” Moments later, he heard a boom and saw shattered glass fly through the air.
“The balcony is totally wiped out, as well as the windows and the doors,” he said as he stood in the dark, smoking a cigarette to calm his nerves while firefighters worked to extinguish the flames.
The air raid alert in Kyiv lasted more than seven hours, warning of incoming missiles and drones.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitalii Klitschko, warned residents ahead of the attack that more than 20 Russian strike drones were heading toward the city. As the attack continued, he said drone debris fell on a shopping mall and a residential building in Obolon. Emergency services were headed to the site, Klitschko said.
Separately, 13 civilians were killed Friday and overnight into Saturday in Russian attacks in Ukraine’s south, east and north, regional authorities said. Three people died after a Russian ballistic missile targeted port infrastructure in Odesa on the Black Sea, local Governor Oleh Kiper said.
Russia’s defence ministry Saturday claimed its forces overnight struck various military targets across Ukraine, including missile and drone-producing plants, a reconnaissance centre and a launching site for anti-aircraft missiles.
Complex deal
The prisoner swap on Friday was the first phase of a complicated deal involving the exchange of 1,000 prisoners from each side.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the first phase of the deal brought home 390 Ukrainians, with further releases expected over the weekend, which will make it the largest swap of the war. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it received the same number of people from Ukraine.
The swap took place at the border with Belarus, in northern Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly.
The released Russians were taken to Belarus for medical treatment, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
However, the exchange — the latest of dozens of swaps since the war began and the biggest involving Ukrainian civilians so far — did not herald a halt in the fighting.
Battles 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.
After the May 16 Istanbul meeting, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called the prisoner swap a “confidence-building measure” and said the parties had agreed in principle to meet again.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that there has been no agreement yet on the venue for the next round of talks as diplomatic manoeuvring continued.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would give Ukraine a draft document outlining its conditions for a “sustainable, long-term, comprehensive” peace agreement, once the ongoing prisoner exchange had finished.
European leaders have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts while he tries to press his larger army’s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.
The Istanbul meeting revealed that both sides remained far apart on key conditions for ending the fighting. One such condition for Ukraine, backed by its Western allies, is a temporary ceasefire as a first step toward a peaceful settlement.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had shot down 788 Ukrainian drones away from the battlefield between May 20 and May 23.
AP
