Russia launches nearly 500 drones into Ukraine, as sides exchange more prisoners

Russia hit Ukraine overnight with its largest drone attack since the start of the war, causing some damage at a military airfield in the west of the country, the Ukrainian air force said on Monday.

It was the latest Russian onslaught since Ukraine destroyed a number of bombers in drone attacks on air bases deep inside Russia earlier this month.

Ukraine’s air defence units downed 460 out of 479 drones and 19 out of 20 missiles launched by the Russian forces, the air force said in a statement.

A military airfield close to Ukraine’s western border was the key target, air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said.

“The main strike was targeting … one of the operational air fields. There are some hits,” Ihnat told Ukrainian TV, without elaborating on the damage.

The airfield is in the city of Dubno, about 60 kilometres from Ukraine’s border with Poland, Ukrainian regional authorities said. Polish and allied aircraft were activated early on Monday to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, the Polish armed forces said.

Prisoner swaps ‘complex,’ Zelenskyy says

Russia’s Defence Ministry said the attack was another strike in response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian bases this month, adding that “all designated facilities” had been hit.

The more than three-year-old war in Ukraine has been escalating as peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow have so far failed to yield any significant results.

The two sides remain deeply divided on how to end the war. Ukraine is pushing for an unconditional ceasefire as a first step, something Russia has repeatedly rejected.

They did confirm that the latest exchange of prisoners of war was taking place on Monday. It involves PoWs under the age of 25 and others who had been severely wounded, the start of what could become the biggest swap of the war so far.

The exchange was the result of direct talks in Istanbul on June 2, which resulted in an agreement to conduct an exchange of at least 1,200 POWs on each side and to repatriate thousands of bodies of those killed in the war.

“Today’s exchange has begun. It will be done in several stages in the coming days,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app.

“The process is quite complex, with many sensitive details, and negotiations continue virtually every day. We count on the full implementation of the humanitarian agreements reached during the meeting in Istanbul. We are doing everything possible to bring back every single person.”

Neither side said how many prisoners had been swapped on Monday, but the Russian Defence Ministry said in its own statement that the same number of military personnel had been exchanged on each side.

Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said on the weekend that a first list of 640 POWs had been handed to Ukraine.

The Russian military said its returned servicemen were now in Belarus, a close Russian ally, where they were getting psychological and medical assistance before being transferred to Russia for further care.

Russia eyes ‘buffer zone’ on the ground

Russia also said on Monday that its forces had taken control of more territory in Ukraine’s east-central region of Dnipropetrovsk, where the Kremlin said fighting was partly aimed at creating a “buffer zone.”

State media quoted the Defence Ministry as saying that Russian troops “continued to advance into the depths of the enemy’s defence” and had increased the area of territory in Dnipropetrovsk they controlled.

Asked if Russia was trying to create a buffer zone by pushing into Dnipropetrovsk, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, “Without a doubt that is part of it.”

The Russian offensive there is notable because Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five regions of Ukraine — including Crimea and four areas in the south and east of the country — that Russia has previously claimed as part of its own territory.

The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said the purpose of a Russian thrust into Dnipropetrovsk could be to cut off Ukraine’s lines of communication and supply to its troops in the Donetsk region, further east.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report. Ukraine said on the weekend that its forces were holding the section of the front near the eastern border of Dnipropetrovsk.