Russia and Ukraine completed a major prisoner swap on Sunday, exchanging 303 soldiers each, following previous exchanges of 307 and 390 prisoners over the past two days. This marked the largest swap of the war and was the only tangible outcome from recent peace talks in Istanbul.
However, just hours before the exchange, Ukraine suffered a massive Russian drone-and-missile attack, described as the largest aerial assault since the full-scale invasion in 2022. The attack targeted Kyiv and multiple other regions, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Western nations to impose stronger sanctions on Russia, emphasizing that the strikes deliberately targeted civilian areas.
Despite the prisoner swap, fighting continues along the front lines, with Russia claiming advances in Ukraine’s northeastern regions. The war remains intense, with no ceasefire agreement reached.