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Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners in the biggest swap since the war began, even as Russia launched its largest-ever airstrike on Ukraine, killing at least 13 and damaging cities nationwide, including Kyiv.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners on Sunday, marking the third day of the largest prisoner swap since the war began in 2022.
Each side released 303 more people on Sunday, including soldiers and civilians, following earlier exchanges of 390 on Friday and 307 on Saturday.
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This rare cooperation came even as Russia launched its most massive air attack yet on Ukraine. According to Ukrainian officials, Russia fired 367 drones and missiles across the country overnight, killing at least 13 people and injuring dozens more.
Ukraine’s Air Force said the attack included 69 missiles and 298 drones, many of them Iranian-made Shahed models. Yuriy Ihnat, spokesperson for the Air Force, called it "the most massive strike since the full-scale invasion began." The attacks hit more than 30 cities and villages, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Zhytomyr, and Chernihiv.
Sunday’s strike came on Kyiv Day, a national holiday marking the founding of the capital in the 5th century. In Kyiv, several neighborhoods were damaged, and a student dormitory caught fire after a drone strike. The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, confirmed multiple casualties, including children and the elderly.
In the village of Markhalivka near Kyiv, 76-year-old Liubov Fedorenko described the destruction of her home. “It looks like Bakhmut or Mariupol,” she said. Her husband, Ivan, 80, broke down in tears over their two dogs that died in the fire.
Despite the ongoing prisoner exchange, there is no sign of a ceasefire. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the Russian strikes, calling them “deliberate attacks on ordinary cities.” He urged the U.S. and Europe to increase pressure on Moscow through stronger sanctions.
“Without real action against the Russian leadership, this brutality will not stop,” Zelenskyy said. He stressed that determination from Western allies is now more important than ever.
Meanwhile, Russia claimed its air defenses shot down 110 Ukrainian drones and said its forces were advancing in Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
The prisoner swaps, brokered through peace talks in Istanbul, have brought brief moments of coordination between the two sides, but the war shows no sign of slowing. Both Ukraine and Russia continue fighting along a 1,000-kilometre front line with heavy losses on both sides.
