KYIV, Ukraine, May 25, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Russian strikes killed at least 12 
people in Ukraine overnight into Sunday, officials said, as Kyiv and Moscow 
traded fire amid an ongoing major prisoner swap.

Ukraine's emergency services described a night of "terror" as Russia launched 
a second straight night of massive air strikes on Ukraine, including on the 
capital Kyiv.

The attacks came as the two sides pursued their biggest prisoner swap since 
Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and as the United 
States tries to broker a ceasefire to halt the three-year-old war.

The death toll from the latest Russian strikes included two children, aged 
eight and 12, and a 17-year-old, killed in the northwestern region of 
Zhytomyr, officials said.

"Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality 
cannot be stopped," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social 
media.

"Sanctions will certainly help," he said, calling on the United States, 
European countries and "all those around the world who seek peace" to show 
their "determination" to make Moscow halt the war.

Ukraine's military said early Sunday it had shot down 45 Russian missiles and 
266 attack drones overnight.

Russian meanwhile said it had brought down 110 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Four people were reported dead in Ukraine's western Khmelnytskyi region, four 
in the Kyiv region and one in Mykolaiv in the south.

Emergency services said 16 people were also injured in the Kyiv region, 
including three children, in the "massive night attack".

"We saw the whole street was on fire," a 65-year-old retired woman, Tetiana 
Iankovska, told AFP in Makhalivka village just southwest of Kyiv.

Another retiree who survived the strikes, Oleskandr, 64, said he had no faith 
in talks around a ceasefire.

"We don't need talks, but weapons, a lot of weapons to stop them (the 
Russians). Because Russia understands only force, nothing else," he said.

- Major prisoner exchange -

The renewed attacks came after Russia launched 14 ballistic missiles and 250 
drones overnight Friday to Saturday, which wounded 15, according to Ukrainian 
officials.

Zelensky said that, even with the ramped-up hostilities, he expected the 
prisoner swap agreed during talks in Istanbul on May 16 to continue.

On Saturday, 307 Russian prisoners of war were exchanged for the same number 
of Ukrainian soldiers, according to announcements in Kyiv and Moscow.

Both sides received 390 people in the first stage on Friday.

They are expected to exchange 1,000 each in total.

Russia has signalled it will send Ukraine its terms for a peace settlement 
after the exchange, without saying what those terms would be.

The two enemies have held regular prisoner swaps, but this would be the 
largest so far, if completed.

An AFP reporter saw some of the formerly captive Ukrainian soldiers arrive at 
a hospital in the northern Chernigiv region, emaciated but smiling and waving 
to crowds waiting outside.

"It's simply crazy. Crazy feelings," 31-year-old Konstantin Steblev, a 
soldier, told AFP Friday as he stepped back onto Ukrainian soil after three 
years in captivity.

- Diplomatic push -

US President Donald Trump on Friday congratulated the two countries for the 
swap.

"This could lead to something big?" he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump's efforts to broker a ceasefire in Europe's biggest conflict since 
World War II have so far been unsuccessful, despite his pledge to rapidly end 
the fighting.

One of the soldiers formerly held captive, 58-year-old Viktor Syvak, told AFP 
it was hard to express his emotional homecoming.

Captured in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, he had been held for 37 
months and 12 days.

"It's impossible to describe. I can't put it into words. It's very joyful," 
he said.

After more than three years of fighting, both countries are holding thousands 
of POWs.

Russia is believed to have the larger share, with the number of Ukrainian 
captives estimated to be between 8,000 and 10,000.