Russia and Ukraine finalized the biggest change of prisoners on Sunday that mirrored a uncommon second of cooperation in in any other case failed efforts to achieve a ceasefire within the greater than three years of conflict.
Russia’s Protection Ministry stated either side introduced dwelling 303 extra troopers after every launched a whole of 307 combatants and civilians on Saturday and 390 on Friday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the change, writing on social media that “303 Ukrainian defenders are home.” He famous that the troops returning had been members of the “Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service and the State Special Transport Service.”
Russian Protection Ministry / Handout/Anadolu through Getty Photographs
In talks held in Turkey earlier this month – the primary time the 2 sides met head to head for peace talks since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – Kyiv and Moscow agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners of conflict and civilian detainees every. The talks, nonetheless, failed to supply a ceasefire between the warring nations.
As such, Russia has continued its offensive on Ukraine, launching a number of drone and missile assaults amid the prisoner swap.
Simply hours earlier than Sunday’s change, Ukraine’s capital and different areas got here below an enormous Russian drone-and-missile assault that killed no less than 12 folks and injured dozens.
The size of onslaught was gorgeous — Russia hit Ukraine with 367 drones and missiles, the biggest single aerial assault of the greater than three-year-long conflict, in keeping with Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Pressure.
Danylo Antoniuk/Anadolu through Getty Photographs
In all, Russia used 69 missiles of varied sorts and 298 drones, together with Iranian-designed Shahed drones, he advised The Related Press.
There was no speedy remark from Moscow on the strikes.
Zelenskyy stated Russian missiles and drones hit greater than 30 cities and villages and urged Western companions to ramp up sanctions on Russia — a longstanding demand of the Ukrainian chief however one which, regardless of warnings to Moscow by the USA and Europe, has not materialized in methods to discourage Russia.
“These were deliberate strikes on ordinary cities,” Zelenskyy posted on social media, including that Sunday’s targets included Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Cherkasy areas.
“Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped. Sanctions will certainly help,” Zelenskyy stated. “Determination matters now — the determination of the United States, of European countries, and of all those around the world who seek peace.”
Oleksandr Gusev/International Photographs Ukraine through Getty Photographs
Russia’s Protection Ministry stated, in the meantime, that its air defenses shot down 110 Ukrainian drones in a single day.
The size of Russia’s use of aerial weapons apart, the assaults over the previous 48 hours have been among the many most intense strikes on Ukraine for the reason that February 2022 invasion.
In the meantime, battles have continued alongside the roughly 620-mile entrance line, the place tens of 1000’s of troopers have been killed, and neither nation has relented in its deep strikes.
Russia’s Protection Ministry quoted Yaroslav Yakimkin of the “North” group of Russian forces as saying Sunday that Ukrainian troops have been pushed again from the border within the Kursk area, which Russian President Vladimir Putin visited days in the past.
“The troops continue to advance forward every day,” Yakimkin stated, including that Russian forces have taken Marine and Loknya in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy area, which borders Kursk, over the previous week, and had been advancing within the Kharkiv area across the largely destroyed city of Vovchansk.
