Russia launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv overnight in one of the biggest combined aerial attacks on the Ukrainian capital of the three-year war, damaging several apartment buildings and injuring 15 people.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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.
In the early hours of the morning, Reuters witnesses saw and heard successive waves of drones flying over Kyiv, and a series of explosions jolted the city.
The capital also reverberated with the sound of anti-aircraft batteries trying to bring down the drones.
Pictures from Reuters photographers showed an orange-red glow lighting up the city as plumes of smoke blew across the horizon.
On the top floor of one apartment building, smoke and flames billowed out of a balcony window as firefighters tried to approach.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
By daybreak, government officials reported damage in six districts of the Ukrainian capital, and a total so far of 15 people wounded.
Three required hospitalisation. Two of the injured were children, the officials said.
The Kyiv city military administration described it as one of the most massive combined drone and missile attacks of the war.
The attacks come as US President Donald Trump is encouraging Russia and Ukraine to sit down for ceasefire talks to end the war, but has pushed back against a European plan to impose new sanctions on Russia.
Russia and Ukraine swap 307 soldiers on second day of POW exchange
Russia and Ukraine have each exchanged 307 of their service personnel on the second day of an extended prisoner swap set to be the largest in the three-year war.
Mr Trump has suggested the swap - which should see 1,000 prisoners released on each side over three days - could herald a new phase in stop-start efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
The swap was announced by Russia's defence ministry, and separately by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a post on social media platform Telegram.
"Tomorrow we expect more," Mr Zelensky wrote.
"Our goal is to return each and every one of us from Russian captivity."
Images released by Mr Zelensky's office showed freed Ukrainian service personnel arriving in buses at a rendez-vous point inside Ukraine, where they hugged each other and draped themselves in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags.
At least one of the released servicemen was in tears and was being consoled by a woman in military uniform.
People assigned to greet the soldiers handed them phones, so they could call relatives.
"I can't believe I'm home," one man said.
A short video released by the Russian defence ministry showed Russian service personnel disembarking from buses and posing with the Russian flag, as well as the flags of the Soviet Union and the Russian empire.
The first part of the exchange took place yesterday when Russia and Ukraine each released 390 prisoners, including 120 civilians, and said they would free more in the coming days.
Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia would be ready to hand Ukraine a draft document outlining conditions for a long-term peace agreement once the current prisoner exchange was completed.
The prisoner exchange was agreed at short-lived talks in Istanbul on 16 May between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, who had come together at the urging of Mr Trump.
Ceasefire talks
Meanwhile, Ukraine's air force said that Russia had fired 14 ballistic missiles at targets across Ukraine overnight and launched 250 long-range drones, with Kyiv the main target.
The strikes followed several days of Ukrainian drone strikes - some 800 attacks - on targets inside Russia, including the capital Moscow.
Mr Lavrov had vowed yesterday to respond to those attacks.
Hours before the drones and missiles reached Kyiv, Russia and Ukraine had exchanged several hundred prisoners, in a move that Mr Trump suggested could be a prelude to progress on peace talks.
Russian negotiators said they were preparing a memorandum that would serve as the starting point for the next round of peace talks.
No date or venue has been agreed.
"Russia still has not sent its 'peace memorandum.' Instead, it is sending deadly drones and missiles at civilians," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote in a post on the Telegram social media platform.
In his own post on Telegram, Mr Zelensky said the Russian attacks were evidence to the rest of the world that Russia is the obstacle to peace.
"Only additional sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy will force Moscow to agree to a ceasefire."
There was no immediate comment from Russia on the overnight attacks.
Russia has said it is committed to seeking a peaceful settlement to the conflict.
But it says Kyiv needs to accept the reality that Russia controls part of its territory, and it must not be used as a bridgehead for Western states to threaten Russia.
Russia's Defence Ministry said its troops had captured the settlements of Stupochki, Otradne and Loknia in Ukraine's Donetsk and Sumy regions.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield report.
