Kyiv under attack as Ukraine, Russia begin largest prisoner swap

At least eight people were wounded in a drone and missile attack on Saturday, just as the first phase of the ‘1000 for 1000’ releases began following peace talks in Turkey.

Jubilation as biggest prisoner swap of long war in Ukraine begins on the border between Ukraine and Belarus. Picture: Reuters/WSJ

At least eight people were wounded in a drone and missile attack on Kyiv Saturday, city authorities said, just as Russia and Ukraine were in the middle of a major prisoner swap.

The head of Kyiv’s civil and military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, reported fires and fallen debris in several parts of the Ukrainian capital, after AFP journalists heard explosions overnight.

At least eight people were wounded in the attack, two of whom were hospitalised, according to the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko.

“The capital and the region are again under massive enemy attack. Air defence systems are continuously operating in Kyiv and its suburbs,” he said on Telegram.

The Russian military meanwhile said Ukraine had targeted it with 788 drones and missiles since Tuesday, 776 of which had been shot down.

The attack on Kyiv comes hours after Russia and Ukraine completed the first stage of a prisoner exchange agreed at talks last week in Istanbul.

Smiling Ukrainian soldiers wrapped themselves in their national flag and gave the thumbs-up as they were released by Russia in the biggest prisoner exchange between the countries since the full-scale war began three years ago.

The exchange of Friday was the only concrete outcome of the direct Kyiv-Moscow peace talks in Istanbul, the first of their kind held since 2022.

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that the first phase of the agreed “1000 for 1000” prisoner swap had taken place, posting images on Telegram of the jubilant Ukrainians returning home.

“This agreement was reached at a meeting in Turkey, and it is important to fully implement it,” Zelensky said, adding that the exchange on the border between Ukraine and Belarus was expected to continue over the weekend. He thanked all those involved in returning the Ukrainian prisoners, saying: “It is very important to return everyone who is in captivity.”

The Russian defence ministry also released footage of soldiers emerging from buses after being released. It said that 270 Russian service personnel and 120 civilians, some of them seized in Russia’s Kursk region, had been returned from Ukrainian captivity, in return for the same numbers of Ukrainians sent home by Russia.

The prisoners released to the Russians were in Belarus, the ministry said, adding that they would soon be sent to Russia for medical and psychological check-ups. The exchange would proceed over coming days, the ministry added, saying that the swap had been at the initiative of the Russian side.

Ukrainian officials said that 387 men and three women had been “liberated”, including personnel from the territorial defence forces, the navy, airborne troops, the national guard and the border guards service.

President Donald Trump broke the news of the exchange and congratulated the warring nations. “A major prisoners swap was just completed between Russia and Ukraine,” he wrote on his Truth Social account. “It will go into effect shortly. Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation. This could lead to something big???”

Ukrainians are hoping for the return of more Azovstal defenders. Picture: Sergei Supinsky/AFP

Some of the Ukrainian soldiers have been held for three years. Picture: Ignacio Marin/Anadolu/Getty Images

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, dismissed suggestions Friday that the next round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine could be held at the Vatican.

“Imagine the Vatican as a venue for negotiations – I would say it’s a bit inelegant, when Orthodox countries will be discussing issues related to the elimination of the root causes [of the Ukrainian conflict] on a Catholic soil,” he said.

He also claimed that the memorandum for a proposed ceasefire that Russia had agreed to give to Ukraine would cite the same alleged root causes, “which must be cut out like cancerous tumours”.

He added that President Vladimir Putin thought Zelensky did not have the legitimacy to sign a peace agreement because Zelensky had exceeded his term in office.

Russian and Ukrainian delegates held their first peace talks in more than three years at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul on May 16, but there was little progress towards an end of hostilities in Ukraine.

Zelensky had urged Putin to attend so that they could talk face to face, but the Russian did not appear. Instead, Moscow sent a junior delegation, prompting the Ukrainian side to downgrade the discussions, which in the end lasted only two hours. The prisoner swap was negotiated, but there was no agreement on the terms of a truce.

Zelensky said at the time that he had discussed the outcome with Trump and other western leaders and urged “tough sanctions” against Moscow if it continued to reject “a full and unconditional ceasefire and an end to killings”.

Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation, said Moscow was satisfied with the results of the talks and that the two sides would resume negotiations after each had submitted detailed proposals for a ceasefire to the other. The Kremlin is thought to consider Turkey the best venue for a resumption of the dialogue.

There have been a series of smaller prisoner swaps throughout the war. On May 6, Russia and Ukraine exchanged 205 prisoners each, with the United Arab Emirates acting as an intermediary. On April 19, 246 were swapped from each side.

The Times, additional reporting from AFP