Ukrainian Defense Minister Sergei Petroevkineniyev vowed to continue the war on a free missile and drone system

KYIV, Ukraine — 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 and authorities said another combined aerial attack that started Saturday night and stretched into Sunday morning had left three people dead in the “Kyiv region,” according to Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the Kyiv regional military administration.

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 Shevchenkivskyi district a private house was destroyed and there were broken windows in a residential building.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s defense ministry said each side brought home 307 more soldiers on Saturday, a day after each released a total of 390 combatants and civilians. Further releases expected over the weekend are set to make the swap the largest in more than three years of war.

Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel that they expect more to come tomorrow. Russia’s defense ministry also said it expected the exchange to be continued, though it did not give details.

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.”

The tragedy of the Obolon district in Ukraine: air raid sirens and drones, civilian casualties, and news from a Ukrainian official

The administration said that the Obolon district was the hardest hit with at least five people wounded in the attack.

Yurii Bondarchuk, a local resident, said the air raid siren “started as usual, then the drones started to fly around as they constantly do.” The shattered glass flew through the air after he heard a boom.

“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.

Separately, 13 civilians were killed on Friday and overnight into Saturday in Russian attacks in Ukraine’s south, east and north, regional authorities said.

A Russian missile struck port infrastructure in Odesa on the Black Sea, killing three people. The strike was against a cargo ship carrying military equipment.

The defense ministry of Russia claimed on Saturday that its forces hit various military targets in eastern Ukraine, including missile and drone producing plants.

It 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 authorized to speak publicly.

Some POWs who were released gave information about when relatives were last seen, which made those who weren’t reunions with their loved ones very happy.

This is a big news. It’s like a fresh breath of air,” she said. It’s some news, but I didn’t see him. At least it’s news that gives us the opportunity to continue to breathe and live in peace.”

Syria’s prisoner-swapping strike on the front line of Ukraine’s largest invasion since 2022, and a test of Russian diplomacy in the coming days

The latest swap did not bring a halt to the fighting, but it was the largest involving Ukrainian civilians so far.

Battles 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.

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 maneuvering continued.

The prisoner exchange has been ongoing, and the Foreign Minister of Russia said that Moscow would give a document outlining the conditions for a peace agreement to the Ukrainian government.

European leaders say that Russian President Vladimir Putin is dragging his feet in peace efforts while he attempts to push his larger army’s 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.

The drone strikes injured three people in the Tula region south of Moscow, local Gov. Dmitriy Milyaev said, and sparked a fire at an industrial site there.

The drones hit a plant in Tula that makes chemicals used in explosives and rocket fuel, according to a security official from Ukraine.

It was “the most massive strike in terms of the number of air attack weapons on the territory of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022,” Ihnat said.

Kiev Day: Sombering City of Kyiv, a Nation’s Most Massive Air Attack since the Fourth Olympic Collision

The day was somber for the city as it observes a national holiday, called Kyiv Day, which commemorates the founding of the city in the 5th century.

That has been a demand of the Ukrainian leader for many years, despite warnings from the United States and Europe, but these have not deterred Russia.

Zelenskyy wrote on X that Sunday’s targets included Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Cherkasy regions.

“A difficult Sunday morning in Ukraine after a sleepless night. The most massive Russian air attack in many weeks lasted all night,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X.

In the region of Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv, three children were killed, aged 8, 12 and 17, according to the emergency service. Twelve were injured in the attacks, the service said. At least four people were killed in the Khmelnytskyi region, in western Ukraine. The man was killed in southern Ukranian.

Several homes were burned down in the village of Markhalivka, and the Fedorenkos witnessed their ruined home in tears.

“The street is very bad and looks like some of the most devastated cities of Ukranian warfare,” says Philipp Fedorenko, who was 76 at the time. She told the AP she was thankful that her daughter didn’t join them over the weekend.

“I was trying to persuade my daughter to come to us,” Fedorenko said, adding 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.’ The rocket hit the house on the side where the children’s rooms were, so Fedorenko was thankful that she didn’t come.

Ivan Fedorenko, 80, said he regrets letting their two dogs into the house after the air raid siren went off. He said that they burned to death. I would like to bury them, but they’re not allowed yet.