Russia and Ukraine finalized the largest exchange of prisoners on Sunday that reflected a rare moment of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire in the more than three years of war.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said each side brought home 303 more soldiers after each released a total of 307 combatants and civilians on Saturday and 390 on Friday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the exchange, writing on social media that “303 Ukrainian defenders are home.” He noted that the troops returning were members of the “Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service and the State Special Transport Service.”
Russian Defense Ministry / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images 
In talks held in Turkey earlier this month – the first time the two sides met face to face for peace talks since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 – Kyiv and Moscow agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners of war and civilian detainees each. The talks, however, failed to produce a ceasefire between the warring countries.
As such, Russia has continued its offensive on Ukraine, launching multiple drone and missile attacks amid the prisoner swap.
Just hours before Sunday’s exchange, Ukraine’s capital and other regions came under a massive Russian drone-and-missile attack that killed at least 12 people and injured dozens.
The scale of onslaught was stunning — Russia hit Ukraine with 367 drones and missiles, the largest single aerial attack of the more than three-year-long war, according to Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force.
Danylo Antoniuk/Anadolu via Getty Images 
In all, Russia used 69 missiles of various types and 298 drones, including Iranian-designed Shahed drones, he told The Associated Press.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the strikes.
Zelenskyy said Russian missiles and drones hit more than 30 cities and villages and urged Western partners to ramp up sanctions on Russia — a longstanding demand of the Ukrainian leader but one that, despite warnings to Moscow by the United States and Europe, has not materialized in ways to deter Russia.
“These were deliberate strikes on ordinary cities,” Zelenskyy posted on social media, adding that Sunday’s targets included Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Cherkasy regions.
“Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped. Sanctions will certainly help,” Zelenskyy said. “Determination matters now — the determination of the United States, of European countries, and of all those around the world who seek peace.”
Oleksandr Gusev/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images 
Russia’s Defense Ministry said, meanwhile, that its air defenses shot down 110 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The scale of Russia’s use of aerial weapons aside, the attacks over the past 48 hours have been among the most intense strikes on Ukraine since the February 2022 invasion.
Meanwhile, battles have continued along the roughly 620-mile front line, where tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed, and neither country has relented in its deep strikes.
Russia’s Defense Ministry quoted Yaroslav Yakimkin of the “North” group of Russian forces as saying Sunday that Ukrainian troops have been pushed back from the border in the Kursk region, which Russian President Vladimir Putin visited days ago.
“The troops continue to advance forward every day,” Yakimkin said, adding that Russian forces have taken Marine and Loknya in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, which borders Kursk, over the past week, and were advancing in the Kharkiv region around the largely destroyed town of Vovchansk.