Russia, Ukraine trade drone fire at capitals amid prisoner swap
AFP:
Russia and Ukraine fired drones towards each other’s capitals Sunday, even as Kyiv and Moscow carry out the biggest prisoner swap since the start of Moscow’s invasion.
AFP journalists heard explosions in the Ukrainian capital, with the head of the city’s military administration warning “the night will not be easy”.
Russian authorities meanwhile reported that a dozen drones flying towards Moscow had been downed.
The latest fire comes as the two sides pursue a major prisoner swap more than three years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russia’s overnight attack on Kyiv wounded at least 10 people, the city’s mayor said while warning residents to stay in shelters.
The capital was “under attack” but “air defences are operating”, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Tymur Tkachenko, Kyiv city’s military administration chief, reported “more than a dozen enemy drones” were in airspace around the capital.
“Some of the drones over Kyiv and the surrounding area have already been dealt with. But the new ones are still entering the capital,” he wrote on Telegram.
Debris fell on a five-storey residential building, he added.
Overnight attacks were also reported in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.
In Moscow, restrictions were imposed on at least four airports, including the main hub Sheremetyevo, the Russian civilian aviation authority said.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 12 drones flying towards the Russian capital had been intercepted.
– ‘Crazy feelings’ –
The renewed attacks follow Ukraine’s air force on Saturday morning saying Russia had launched 14 ballistic missiles and 250 drones overnight.
Officials said 15 people were wounded in those strikes.
The Russian military said Saturday that Ukraine had targeted it with 788 drones and missiles since Tuesday.
Dozens of drones targeting Moscow have been shot down over the past week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s attacks indicated Moscow was “prolonging the war” and repeated his call for ramped-up sanctions.
But he also said he expected officials to press on with a prisoner swap agreed during talks last week in Istanbul.
On Saturday, 307 Russian prisoners of war were exchanged for the same number of Ukrainian soldiers, according to announcements in Kyiv and Moscow.
Both sides received 390 people in the first stage on Friday and are expected to exchange 1,000 each in total.
Russia has signalled it will send Ukraine its terms for a peace settlement after the exchange, without saying what those terms would be.
The two enemies have held regular prisoner swaps, 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.
– Diplomatic push –
US President Donald Trump earlier congratulated the two countries for the swap.
“This could lead to something big???” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s efforts to broker a ceasefire in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II have so far been unsuccessful, despite his pledge to rapidly end the fighting.
One of the soldiers formerly held captive, 58-year-old Viktor Syvak, told AFP it was hard to put words to his emotional homecoming.
Captured in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, he had been held for 37 months and 12 days.
“I didn’t expect such a welcome. It’s impossible to describe. I can’t put it into words. It’s very joyful,” he said.
After more than three years of fighting, thousands of POWs are held in both countries.
Russia is believed to have the larger share, with the number of Ukrainian captives held by Moscow estimated to be between 8,000 and 10,000.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have stepped up in recent weeks, but the Kremlin has shown no sign it has walked back its maximalist demands for ending the fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has defied European pressure for a full and unconditional truce in Ukraine, pressing on with its offensive, which has left tens of thousands dead.