The Ukrainian capital has been hit by a massive attack using Russian drones and missiles, leaving at least 15 people injured, officials said.
From Friday evening until Saturday morning, explosions and machine-gun fire were heard across Kyiv as many residents sought shelter in metro stations.
The attack came just hours after Russia and Ukraine began a major prisoner swap involving hundreds of soldiers and civilians, the first stage of a swap agreed upon at a meeting in Istanbul last week.
The second stage is expected to take place later on Saturday.
At talks in Istanbul earlier this month, the first face-to-face meeting of the two sides for peace talks since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Kyiv and Moscow agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war and civilian detainees on each side.
It was a rare moment of cooperation in the futile efforts to broker a ceasefire in the three-year conflict.
Russia struck Ukraine overnight with 14 ballistic missiles and 250 Shahid drones, with Ukrainian forces shooting down six missiles and neutralizing 245 drones, including 128 downed and 117 destroyed by electronic warfare, officials said.
The Kyiv city military administration reported that this was one of the largest combined attacks using missiles and drones on the capital.
“A difficult night for all of us,” the administration said in a statement.
Debris from intercepted missiles and drones fell in at least six districts of the Ukrainian capital.
As reported by the acting head of the Kyiv military administration, Timur Tkachenko, as a result of the attack, six people required medical assistance, and two fires occurred in the Solomensky district of Kyiv.
The greatest damage was inflicted on the Obolon district, where a residential building was severely damaged as a result of the attack. According to the administration, at least five people were injured in this district.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned residents before the attack that more than 20 Russian attack drones were heading toward the city. He said that as the attack continued, debris from the drones fell on a shopping mall and a residential building in Kyiv's Obolon district. Emergency services were called to the scene, Mr Klitschko said.
The exchange of prisoners did not signal an end to hostilities.
Fighting continued along a front line stretching some 620 miles, where tens of thousands of soldiers died, with neither side slowing down its intense attacks.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
