Russia launches large drone-and-missile assault on Ukraine after prisoner swap | EUROtoday

Moscow and Kyiv engaged in a major prisoner alternate on Sunday, marking a uncommon occasion of cooperation amid ongoing hostilities.

The Russian protection ministry confirmed the swap, the third such alternate in a collection that started on Friday. This newest alternate noticed 303 troopers returned to every aspect, following the discharge of 307 combatants and civilians on Saturday, and 390 on Friday.

The mixed exchanges signify the most important prisoner swap in over three years of battle.

The announcement got here hours after a large Russian drone-and-missile assault focused the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and different areas within the nation for a second consecutive night time, killing no less than 12 folks and injuring dozens, officers stated early Sunday.

The scale of the onslaught was beautiful — Russia hit Ukraine with 367 drones and missiles, making this the most important single aerial assault of the greater than three-years-long conflict, in keeping with Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force.

In all, Russia used 69 missiles of varied sorts and 298 drones, together with Iranian-designed Shahed drones, he advised The Associated Press.

It was “the most massive strike in terms of the number of air attack weapons on the territory of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022,” Ihnat stated.

For Kyiv, the day was significantly somber as the town noticed Kyiv Day, a nationwide vacation that falls on the final Sunday in May, commemorating its founding within the fifth century,

‘Deliberate strikes on atypical cities’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Russian missiles and drones hit greater than 30 cities and villages and urged Western companions to ramp up sanctions on Russia.

That has been a long-standing demand of the Ukrainian chief however one which — regardless of warnings to Moscow by the United States and Europe — haven’t materialized in methods to discourage Russia.

“These Were Deliberate Strikes on Ordinary Cities,” Zelenskyy Wrote on X, Adding That Sunday’s Targets Included Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Chernopil Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Cherkasy Regions.

“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.”

Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed its troops have taken management of the village of Romanivka in Ukraine’s jap Donetsk area on Sunday.

A map of Romanivka:

The prisoner swap was the one tangible final result from peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month which have to this point failed to supply a ceasefire and a uncommon second of cooperation between the warring sides.

Russia’s Defense Ministry stated emanwhile that its air defenses shot down 110 Ukrainian drones in a single day.

The ‘most large Russian air assault’

Sounds of explosions boomed all through the night time in Kyiv and the encompassing space as Ukrainian air protection persevered for hours in efforts to shoot down Russian drones and missiles. At least 4 folks had been killed and 16 had been injured within the capital itself, in keeping with the safety service.

“A difficult Sunday morning in Ukraine after a sleepless night. The most massive Russian air attack in many weeks lasted all night,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated on X.

Fires broke out in houses and companies, set off by falling drone particles.

In Zhytomyr area, west of Kyiv, the emergency service stated three kids had been killed, aged 8, 12 and 17. Twelve folks had been injured within the assaults, it stated. At least 4 folks had been killed within the Khmelnytskyi area, in western Ukraine. One man was killed in Mykolaiv area, in southern Ukraine.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko stated a pupil dormitory in Holosiivskyi district was hit by a drone and one of many constructing’s partitions was on hearth. In Dniprovskyi district, a non-public home was destroyed and in Shevchenkivskyi district, home windows in a residential constructing had been smashed.

The scale 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 because the February 2022 invasion.

In Markhalivka, simply exterior Kyiv the place a number of village houses had been burned down, the Fedorenkos watched their ruined house in tears.

“The street looks like Bakhmut, like Mariupol, it’s just terrible,” says 76-year-old Liubov Fedorenko, evaluating their village to a few of Ukraine’s most devastated cities. She advised the AP she was grateful her daughter and the grandchildren hadn’t joined them for the weekend.

“I was trying to persuade my daughter to come to us,” Fedorenko stated, including that she advised her daughter, “After all, you live on the eighth floor in Kyiv, and here it’s the ground floor.”‘

“She said, ‘No, mum, I’m not coming.’ And thank God she didn’t come, because the rocket hit (the house) on the side where the children’s rooms were,” Fedorenko stated.

Ivan Fedorenko, 80, stated he regrets letting their two canine into the home when the air raid siren went off. “They burned to death,” he stated. “I want to bury them, but I’m not allowed yet.”