More POWs Swapped Amid Russian Missiles On Kiev Overnight

Early Saturday Russia and Ukraine completed their second round of a large-scale prisoner swap that was agreed to in Istanbul talks last week.

The deal will see 1,000 POWs exchanged for 1,000 POWs but has to be completed in phases given the logistics and sheer size of the swap, with the first round of hundreds freed having taken place Friday along the Belarus-Ukraine border. The Saturday exchange involved each side bringing home 307 soldiers.

Scenes of a prior prisoner swap, illustrative file image.

But despite this 'good faith’ gesture of a successful ongoing prisoner exchange, the war is still raging, with an aerial war ramping up, given the hundreds of drones sent across both borders over the last week.

This continued overnight, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky early Saturday condemning Russian strikes on several oblasts, including in the capital Kyiv.

Zelensky identified in a social media statement that the fresh aerial assault targeted the Odesa, Vinnytsia, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kyiv and Dnipro regions. He alleged that Russian drones and missiles „targeted” civilians. At least 15 were wounded in these attacks.

„There are fatalities. My condolences to the families and loved ones,” he wrote on X. „With each such attack, the world becomes more certain that the cause of prolonging the war lies in Moscow.”

„Ukraine has proposed a ceasefire many times — both a full one and one in the skies. It all has been ignored,” the Ukrainian leader added in reference to the 30-day unconditional ceasefire that Kiev has recently been pushing.

Moscow has rejected it on the basis that Ukraine’s military would simply use the pause to rearm and reenforce its frontlines, at a moment Western arms have continued flowing in.

As for the Saturday morning prisoner exchange, Zelensky detailed that „Among those who returned today are warriors from our Armed Forces, the State Border Guard Service, the National Guard of Ukraine” and he thanked all those officials engaged in the process to make it happen.

The Kremlin has acknowledged the fresh attacks on the Ukrainian capital, and has rejected the notion that it is using disproportionate force.

„After massive UAV raids on our country and its capital on the eve of the Victory Day to intimidate foreign guests, there was a grave silence in the European centers. After 500 drones that were launched at civilian targets in Russia in recent days to intimidate our people, there is silence again,” Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has stated.

Now, he continued, Western officials „in Paris, Berlin and London will raise a wild squeal about the disproportionate use of force, the urgent need for a 30-day truce and new sanctions against Russia.”