Ukraine’s capital came under a large-scale Russian drone and missile attack early Saturday with explosions and machine gun fire heard throughout the city, forcing many Kyiv residents to take shelter in underground subway stations.
The nighttime Russian attack came hours after Russia and Ukraine began a major prisoner exchange, swapping hundreds of soldiers and civilians in the first phase of an exchange that was agreed on by the two sides at a meeting in Istanbul last week. The agreement was a moment of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire in the 3-year-old war.
The Kyiv city military administration and the police reported damage in six districts of the Ukrainian capital, and a total so far of 15 people wounded.
"It was a difficult night for all of Ukraine — 250 strike drones, the absolute majority of them Iranian "Shaheds," and 14 ballistic missiles," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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," he added.
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Prior to the attack, city mayor Vitalii Klitschko warned Kyiv residents of more than 20 Russian strike drones heading towards Kyiv. As the attack continued, he said drone debris fell on a shopping mall and a residential building in Obolon district of Kyiv. Emergency services were headed to the site, Klitschko said.
As dawn broke on Saturday, residents at an apartment building just outside the centre of Kyiv were surveying the damage.
Dozens of windows had been shattered, and balconies on one side of the building were smashed by drones.
"I wish they’d agree to a ceasefire," said Olha Chyrukha, a 64-year-old resident. "The poor children! My three-year-old granddaughter was screaming scared."
The Obolon district on the north-western edge of Kyiv was the worst hit, officials said. A resident there, 42-year-old Olha Kalina, said her apartment was struck while she was staying elsewhere with her parents.
"The kids rang me at three in the morning and said: 'Mum, we've been hit. The balcony's on fire'," she said.
Kalina rushed to the scene and found her children sheltering in a nearby underground car park, their faces blackened from smoke. She said the apartment was no longer habitable because of fire damage.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a social media post it had been a "tough night" for Ukraine, and called for new international sanctions to pressure Moscow into agreeing to a ceasefire.
Prisoner exchange
The prisoner swap Friday was the first phase of a complicated deal involving the exchange of 1,000 prisoners from each side that is set to continue over the weekend.
Zelensky said the first phase brought home 390 Ukrainians, with further releases expected over the weekend that will make it the largest swap of the war.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it received the same number from Ukraine.
The swap took place at the border with Belarus in northern Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The released Russians were taken to Belarus for medical treatment, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
As the freed men entered the medical facility Friday, people holding signs and photos of their relatives shouted names or brigade numbers, seeking any news of a loved one.
“Vanya!” cried Nataliia Mosych, among the gathered relatives, “My husband!”
The exchange, the latest of dozens of swaps since the war began and the biggest involving Ukrainian civilians at one time, didn’t herald any halt in fighting.
Battles continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed, and neither country has relented in its deep strikes.
After the May 16 Istanbul meeting, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called the prisoner swap a “confidence-building measure” and said the parties had agreed in principle to meet again.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that there has been no agreement yet on the venue for the next round of talks to end the fighting as diplomatic maneuvering continued.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday night that Moscow would give Ukraine a draft document outlining its conditions for a “sustainable, long-term, comprehensive” peace agreement once the ongoing prisoner exchange had finished.
European leaders have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts while he tries to press his larger army’s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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