Ukraine was hit by a massive Russian airstrike early Sunday morning, killing at least 13 people, while Ukrainian drones temporarily shut down airports in Moscow hours before the final phase of a major prisoner exchange between the two countries began.
Ukrainian emergency services described a "night of terror" as Russia launched a second consecutive night of attacks on Ukrainian territory after launching ballistic missiles and drones overnight Friday to Saturday.
This comes as the two sides continued their largest prisoner exchange since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Ukrainian Air Force announced that 45 Russian missiles and 266 drones were shot down during the attacks.
The military said in a statement on Telegram that "most regions of Ukraine were affected by the enemy attack. Enemy airstrikes were recorded in 22 areas, and cruise missiles and attack drones were shot down in 15 locations."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Sunday for pressure on Russia to force it to stop these attacks and the conflict in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy wrote, "Without strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped. Sanctions will certainly help," calling on the United States, European countries, and "everyone who seeks peace" to show "determination" to push his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to "end the war."
For its part, the Russian military announced in a statement that it had targeted "institutions belonging to the Ukrainian military-industrial complex" overnight.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaya Kallas called on Sunday for "strongest international pressure" on Russia to stop the war.
"Last night's attacks show once again that Russia is determined to further the suffering and annihilation of Ukraine," she wrote in a post on Twitter.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also condemned the attacks, saying, "Putin does not want peace, he wants to continue the war, and we must not allow him to do so."
He added, "That is why we will agree to impose additional sanctions at the European level."
Ukrainian emergency services reported a "night of terror" in the capital, Kyiv, where Russian attacks killed four people and injured 23, according to an updated police report.
A Russian airstrike killed two children, aged 8 and 12, and a 17-year-old boy in the Zhytomyr region of northwestern Ukraine, emergency services said.
Four people were killed in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine, and a man was found dead in the southern Mykolaiv region after a drone strike.
Two people were killed in the Mykolaiv region. On Sunday evening, the governor of the southern region, Vitaliy Kim, said the body of a second person had been recovered from the rubble.
AFP correspondents heard explosions in the Ukrainian capital.
Attacks were also reported overnight in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.
"We saw the entire street burning," Tetyana Iankovska, a 65-year-old pensioner, told AFP in the village of Makhalivka, southwest of Kyiv.
Oleksandr, 64, another pensioner who survived the airstrikes, insisted he had no faith in ceasefire talks.
"We don't need talks, we need weapons, lots of weapons, to stop them (the Russians), because Russia only understands force," he said.
In Moscow, restrictions were imposed on at least four airports, including the main Sheremetyevo International Airport, according to Russia's Civil Aviation Authority.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that 12 drones flying toward the Russian capital were intercepted.
The Russian military announced that it had neutralized 110 Ukrainian drones over the country overnight.
These attacks came as Russia and Ukraine began exchanging a record number of prisoners over three days. This exchange is the only tangible outcome of the talks between Russians and Ukrainians in Istanbul in mid-May.
The Russian Defense Ministry and the Ukrainian president announced in separate statements that 303 Russian soldiers held captive by Ukraine were exchanged for an equal number of Ukrainian soldiers on Sunday, as part of the third and final phase of the operation.
US President Donald Trump announced the exchange, stressing that he wanted to push the warring parties to negotiate an end to the "bloodshed" as soon as possible.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow, which occupies 20% of Ukrainian territory, is working on a document outlining "the terms of a sustainable, comprehensive, and long-term settlement" of the conflict, which will be transferred to Ukraine once the prisoner exchange is completed.
Kyiv will also present its terms for ending the conflict.
Meanwhile, fighting continues on the front lines, with the Russian army, which has superior numbers and equipment, advancing slowly in certain areas despite suffering heavy losses.
The Russian army announced on Sunday the capture of the small Ukrainian village of Romanovka in the Donetsk region in the east of the country.
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