Kyiv — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that a new prisoner exchange with Russia was underway. He said it would take place in several rounds over the “coming days,” announcing that Kyiv had received the first group of captives from Russia.
The news of another prisoner swap, agreed to by the warring neighbors in direct talks that have failed to yield any significant progress toward a broader easing of the war sparked by Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion in 2022, came after Moscow launched a drone attack on a Ukrainian air base in the country’s far west.
“Today, an exchange began, which will continue in several stages over the coming days,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “Among those we are bringing back now are the wounded, the severely wounded, and those under the age of 25,” he added.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said earlier Monday that it had returned a group of prisoners — all aged under 25 — from Ukraine in the first stage of a new major exchange of captives agreed between Moscow and Kyiv during their second round of talks in Istanbul.
The exchange of prisoners has been a solitary positive development from those direct talks, in which the two sides remain otherwise entrenched in their respective demands over conditions to halt the fighting. On the roughly 600-mile front line in the ground war, stretching from eastern Ukraine’s northern to southern borders, the fighting has only intensified in recent weeks.
Moscow claimed Monday to have gained even more ground in eastern Ukraine, and it did so after launching a massive round of attack drones in retaliation for Kyiv’s blistering sneak drone attack on Russian military aircraft last week.
President Trump said last week that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had told him during a phone call that Russia would retaliate for the Ukrainian drone attack, which Kyiv claims destroyed 41 Russian bombers as they sat parked at four airbases.
Russia launches major drone strike against Ukraine as fighting continues
Moscow fired a record 479 drones at Ukraine, including on the western region of Rivne that has been largely spared from attacks, Kyiv said Monday, while claiming an attack on a Russian factory hundreds of miles east of Moscow.
Russia has escalated its attacks across Ukraine in recent weeks, which Kyiv says demonstrate that the Kremlin has no intention of stopping its more than three-year invasion and is not serious about peace talks.
Moscow said Monday its strikes are continued retaliation for a bold Ukrainian attack on its bomber planes parked deep inside Russia, including in Siberia, that infuriated the Kremlin.
The overnight Russian attacks caused damage in several Ukrainian regions. There were no reports of people killed or mass casualties.
“Enemy air strikes were recorded in 10 spots,” the Ukrainian air force said.
The mayor of the western city of Rivne, Oleksandr Tretyak, called it “the largest attack” on the region since the start of the war.
Regional governor Oleksandr Koval said 70 buildings — including private houses and a nursery — were damaged in the attack.
Russia said it had targeted an airfield near the village of Dubno in the Rivne region.
“This is one of the retaliatory strikes against terrorist attacks by the Kyiv regime on Russian military airfields,” its defense ministry said.
Ukraine’s Air Force Command spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said in a post on social media that the country’s U.S.-made Patriot air defense system had shot down all four Kinzhal hypersonic missiles launched by a warplane over Rivne Oblast, but it was unclear whether any drones or other Russian weapons might have hit the airfield in the area. There were no reports by Ukrainian media of significant damages to the facility.
Ukraine also said it had launched its own overnight strike on an electronics factory that makes part for Russian drones, in the city of Cheboskary in Chuvashia — some 372 miles east of Moscow.
Russian officials said the facility had to temporarily suspend production after the attack.
“This morning, Ukrainian attempts to use drones in Chuvashia were detected,” Chuvashia Governor Oleg Nikolayev said on Telegram, adding: “Two drones fell on the territory of the VNIIR factory.”
Ukraine’s army said the factory manufactured “antennas for Shahed” (drones). Russia fires dozens of Iranian-designed Shahed attack drones at Ukrainian cities on a daily basis.
Russia said a Ukrainian strike killed one person in its border Kursk region Monday. The acting governor of the region, Alexander Khinstein, said the strike hit a “cultural-service centre” in the Rylsky district, killing a 64-year-old man.
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