The Saturday night war between Russia and Ukraine: the first day of cooperation between the United States and the world’s most militarized neighbors has come to an end

A major swap that resulted in the exchange of hundreds of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine on Saturday is considered to be a rare moment of cooperation.

Many hid in subway stations as the Ukrainian capital was hit with anti-aircraft fire and explosions on the previous night.

One of the building’s walls was on fire after being hit by a drone, according to the mayor of the city. In Shevchenkivskyi district, a private house was destroyed as well as windows in a building being smashed.

On Saturday each side brought home more soldiers, after Russia and Ukraine released a total of 490 men and women. Further releases expected over the weekend are set to make the swap the largest in more than three years of war.

Zelenskyy said on his official Telegram channel that they expect more to come tomorrow. Russia’s defense ministry also said it expected the exchange to be continued, though it did not give details.

“Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped. Sanctions will certainly help,” Zelenskyy said. “Determination matters now — the determination of the United States, of European countries, and of all those around the world who seek peace.”

A Russian drone strike in Obolon kills 13 people, wounds and two civilians in Ukraine’s south, east and north overnight

The Obolon district, where a residential building was heavily damaged in the attack, was the hardest hit with at least five wounded in the area, the administration said.

Yurii Bondarchuk, a local resident, said the air raid siren “started as usual, then the drones started to fly around as they constantly do.” He saw shattered glass fly through the air after he heard a boom.

The balcony was totally wiped out as he stood in the dark smoking a cigarette to calm his nerves while firefighters worked to extinguish the flames.

13 civilians were killed in Russian attacks in Ukraine’s south, east and north overnight into Saturday, authorities said.

Three people were killed when a missile hit port infrastructure in Odesa on the Black Sea. Russia claimed the strike on Friday targeted a cargo ship with military equipment.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that overnight and early on Saturday its forces shot down over 100 Ukrainian drones over six provinces in western and southern Russia.

It 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.

Those who were not reunited with their loved ones took solace in the released POWs providing some information about when their relatives were last seen.

“This is such a big news. She said that it was like a fresh breath of air. “I didn’t see him, but at least it’s some news. At least it’s news that gives us the opportunity to continue to breathe and live in peace.”

Kiev’s Defence Minister Has Not Renounced Its Prisoner-Swap Agreement Despite Russian-Ukrainian-Russian Interaction

However, the exchange — the latest of dozens of swaps since the war began and the biggest involving Ukrainian civilians so far — did not herald a halt in the 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.

The Turkish Foreign Minister said the parties had agreed in principle to meet again after the Istanbul meeting, and that a prisoner swap was a confidence-building measure.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that there has been no agreement yet on the venue for the next round of talks as diplomatic maneuvering continued.

After the prisoner exchange had finished, Russia will give Ukraine a document outlining its conditions for a peace agreement, said the Russian Foreign Minister.

European leaders accused Russian President Putin of dragging his feet on peace efforts when he tried to push his larger army to seize more Ukrainian land.

The Istanbul meeting revealed that both sides remained far apart on key conditions for ending the fighting. One such condition for Ukraine, backed by its Western allies, is a temporary ceasefire as a first step toward a peaceful settlement.

The drone strikes injured three people in the Tula region south of Moscow, local Gov. Dmitriy Milyaev said, and sparked a fire at an industrial site there.

Andriy Kovalenko, of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Saturday the drones hit a plant in Tula that makes chemicals used in explosives and rocket fuel.

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 said.

Kiev air attack on a Ukrainian village, Markhalivka, during the morning of Kyiv Day and in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Kiev

As the city observes Kyiv Day, a national holiday that occurs on the final Sunday of May, the day was particularly somber.

Despite warnings to Moscow by the United States and Europe, that demand has not materialized in ways to deter Russia.

Zelenskyy wrote on X that Sunday’s targets included Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Cherkasy regions.

A difficult Sunday morning in Ukraine, after a sleepless night. The Ukrainian foreign minister said that the Russian air attack lasted all night.

The emergency service says that three children were killed in the western region of Zhytomyr. Twelve were injured in the attacks, the service said. At least four people were killed in the Khmelnytskyi region, in western Ukraine. One man was killed in Mykolaiv region, in southern Ukraine.

In the village of Markhalivka, just outside Kyiv, where several homes were burned down in the overnight strikes, the Fedorenkos watched their ruined home in tears.

“The street looks like Bakhmut, like Mariupol, it’s just terrible,” says 76-year-old Liubov Fedorenko, comparing their village to some of Ukraine’s most devastated cities in the war. She told the AP how grateful she was her daughter had not joined them for the weekend with her family.

“I was trying to persuade my daughter to come to us,” Fedorenko said, adding she told 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 said.

Ivan Fedorenko, 80, said he regrets letting their two dogs into the house after the air raid siren went off. He said that they burned to death. “I want to bury them, but I’m not allowed yet.”