News Agency
\nKYIV
\nRussian aerial attacks on Ukraine have killed at least 13 people and injured 56 civilians across the country, according to regional officials. Russia launched 250 drones and 14 ballistic missiles against Kyiv alone, Ukraine\u2019s air force said, causing fires in residential buildings.
\nAt least 14 people were injured in the capital. It was one of the biggest combined aerial assaults on the city since the war began.
\nThe air force said it had downed six missiles and 245 drones.
\n\u201cWith each such attack, the world becomes more certain that the cause of prolonging the war lies in Moscow,\u201d Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.
\nThe overnight barrage came as Russia and Ukraine are taking part in prisoner swaps agreed after talks between the two sides in Turkey.
\nDescribing a \u201cdifficult night\u201d, Zelensky said there had been fires and explosions across Kyiv with homes, businesses and cars damaged by strikes or falling debris.
\nFour people were killed in the eastern Donetsk Region; five in the southern Odesa and Kherson regions and four in the northeast Kharkiv region.
\nOlha Chyrukha, a 64-year-old Kyiv resident, told Reuters news agency: \u201cI wish they\u2019d agree to a ceasefire. To bomb people like this – poor children. My three-year-old granddaughter was screaming scared.\u201d
\nCommenting on the combined use of aerial weapons, Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv\u2019s military administration, said: \u201cThe enemy is improving its own tactics of using drones, while simultaneously striking with ballistics.\u201d
\nZelensky said only \u201cadditional sanctions targeting key sectors of the Russian economy\u201d could push Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.
\nLast week, Russia said Ukraine had launched hundreds of exploding drones at the country, including strikes over Moscow. The Russia\u2019s defence ministry said that 485 drones had been shot down.
\nOn Saturday, Zelensky announced that 307 Ukrainian prisoners had returned home as part of an exchange deal with the Kremlin.
\nOn Friday, Ukraine and Russia each handed over 390 soldiers and civilians in the biggest prisoner exchange since Russia launched its full-scale assault in February 2022.
\nThe two countries have agreed to swap a total of 1,000 prisoners each, and another exchange is expected on Sunday.
\nUS President Donald Trump, who has pledged but so far failed to end the war, suggested on social media that the swap \u201ccould lead to something big???\u201d.
\nEarlier this week, Trump had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war, after which he said the Kremlin and Ukraine would \u201cimmediately start\u201d negotiations for a ceasefire.
\nHowever, Putin has only said Russia would work with Ukraine to craft a \u201cmemorandum on a possible future peace agreement\u201d, and failed to address calls for a 30-day ceasefire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
News Agency KYIV Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine have killed at least 13 people and injured 56 civilians across the country, according to regional officials. Russia launched 250 drones and 14 ballistic missiles against Kyiv alone, Ukraine\u2019s air force said, causing fires in residential buildings. At least 14 people were injured in the capital. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-480662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n