Russia strikes Kyiv as hundreds more POWs exchanged with Ukraine

Ag AFP

KYIV, Ukraine: A massive Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv Saturday wounded at least 15 people, even as Russia and Ukraine continued the biggest prisoner swap since the start of Moscow’s invasion.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 14 ballistic missiles and 250 attack drones overnight, adding that it downed six missiles and 245 drones.

Kyiv was “the main target of the enemy attack”, the air force said in a statement.

“With each such attack, the world becomes more certain that the cause of prolonging the war lies in Moscow,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.

“Only additional sanctions targeting key sectors of the Russian economy will force Moscow to cease fire,” he said.

Kyiv city officials reported fires and fallen debris in several parts of the Ukrainian capital, after AFP journalists heard explosions overnight.

Officials said 15 people were injured in Kyiv itself.

They also said at least 11 people had been killed by Russian strikes the day before: four in the Donetsk region, four in Kharkiv and three in the city of Odesa.

The Russian military meanwhile said Ukraine had targeted it with 788 drones and missiles since Tuesday.

Dozens of drones targeting Moscow have been shot down over the past week.

The attack on Kyiv came hours after Russia and Ukraine completed the first stage of a prisoner exchange agreed at talks last week in Istanbul and just before the second stage on Saturday.

Russia’s defence ministry said each side exchanged 307 prisoners of war on Saturday via Belarus, a Kremlin ally.

It said the Russian POWs would receive psychological and medical help in Belarus before travelling on to Russia.

Both sides received 390 people in the first stage on Friday and are expected to exchange 1,000 each in total.

“We expect the exchange to continue tomorrow,” Zelensky said.

Russia has signalled it will send Ukraine its terms for a peace settlement after the swap, which is set to continue over the weekend -- without saying what those terms would be.

The two enemies have held regular prisoner swaps since Russia launched its 2022 offensive -- but none has been on this scale.

An AFP reporter saw some of the formerly captive Ukrainian soldiers arrive at a hospital in the northern Chernigiv region, emaciated but smiling and waving to crowds waiting outside.

After they stepped off the bus, tearful relatives rushed to embrace the soldiers while others held pictures of their loved ones, hoping to find out if they had been seen in captivity.

Many of the soldiers were draped in bright yellow and blue Ukrainian flags.

“It’s simply crazy. Crazy feelings,” 31-year-old Konstantin Steblev, a soldier, told AFP after he was released following three years in captivity.

Russia said it had received 270 Russian troops and 120 civilians, including some from parts of its Kursk region captured and held by Kyiv for months. US President Donald Trump earlier congratulated the two countries for the swap.