Russia launched a major assault on Ukraine overnight, killing at least 13 people and injuring dozens in a barrage of drone and missile strikes targeting the capital Kyiv and other regions, even as both nations continued a large-scale prisoner exchange.
According to regional officials, at least four people were killed in the eastern Donetsk region, five in the southern Kherson and Odesa regions, and four in the northern Kharkiv region over the past 24 hours.
Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russia fired 14 ballistic missiles and 250 attack drones, with the “main focus” being Kyiv. It said that air defenses successfully intercepted six missiles and 245 drones, though projectiles still struck areas including Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia.
“It was a difficult night for all of Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram, offering condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims and injured.
Police in Kyiv said at least 18 people were injured in the city as it came under a large-scale Russian aerial assault. Fires broke out and debris littered the streets, according to officials. Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that multiple residential buildings had been damaged by the attacks.
Explosions and air raid sirens echoed across Kyiv during the night, and flames lit up the city’s skyline.
Ukrainian parliament member Kira Rudik told CNN she spent the night hiding “under the stairs” during the bombardment. “It was terrifying, it felt honestly like armageddon, the explosions were everywhere,” she said.
Despite the violence, Ukraine and Russia pressed ahead with the second phase of a prisoner exchange that began Friday. On Saturday, over 600 Russian and Ukrainian servicemen were released. Video footage released by the Ukrainian Coordination Center for Treatment of Prisoners of War showed emotional scenes of freed Ukrainian troops — many with shaved heads and wrapped in national flags — embracing each other and calling family members.
Nearly 800 individuals were freed the previous day in what officials say is the largest prisoner swap since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Each side has agreed to release 1,000 prisoners.
The exchange was the only tangible result from last week’s meeting between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul, marking the first direct talks between the two since early in the war.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha praised the country’s air defense efforts, stating they worked “non-stop” to counter the Russian aerial assault. “One week has passed since the Istanbul meeting, and Russia has yet to send its ‘peace memorandum.’ Instead, Russia sends deadly drones and missiles at civilians,” he said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry claimed it had destroyed 94 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over Russian territory, primarily across the Belgorod and Bryansk regions. Additional UAVs were reportedly shot down over the Kursk, Lipetsk, Voronezh, and Tula regions.
Tula region governor Dmitry Miliaev said three people were injured in the drone attacks, including two who were hospitalized.
The Istanbul meeting, originally proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to a ceasefire-or-sanctions ultimatum from Ukraine’s European allies, has yielded no major diplomatic breakthrough. Ukraine and its partners had insisted on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, but Moscow has so far resisted those calls.
