Russia and Ukraine hold 1st stage of prison swap following peace talks
LONDON -- Russia and Ukraine held the first stage of a prisoner swap on Monday, both countries confirmed, following an agreement reached during peace talks in Istanbul last week.
"Today, the first stage of the prisoner exchange agreed in Istanbul has begun," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during an evening address on Monday. "More stages will follow -- at least, that's what was discussed with the Russian side."
The exchanged included wounded soldiers and those ages 25 and younger, according to Zelenskyy. Additional details, including the number of prisoners released, were not available.
"The details of the process are quite sensitive, so for now, there is less information than usual," Zelenskyy said. "I thank everyone who is helping to carry out the exchange and working to ensure that all our people can return home from Russian captivity."
In late May, Russia and Ukraine each handed over 390 soldiers and civilians in the biggest prisoner exchange since the full-scale invasion of 2022.
The exchange comes after Russian forces targeted regions throughout Ukraine with at least 479 attack drones, marking one of the largest such overnight aerial strikes of the war, Ukraine's air force said Monday.
"According to preliminary data, as of 10:30, air defense neutralized 479 enemy air attack vehicles, 292 were shot down by fire weapons, 187 were lost in location," the air force said in a message posted in Ukrainian.
Russia launched another 20 missiles of various types, including more than 10 cruise missiles, the military said. The Ukrainian air force issued a series of alerts beginning early Monday, saying Russian drones were targeting areas throughout much of the country.
Those alerts led to Polish and allied planes briefly scrambling in Polish airspace, as Russia unleashed its aerial strikes, the Polish armed forces said.
The operation commander of the armed forces in Poland "launched all available forces and resources at his disposal, the on-duty fighter pairs were scrambled, and the ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems reached the highest state of readiness," the military said in a statement in Polish translated by ABC News.
The warplane launches were "preventative in nature" and there wasn't a violation of Polish airspace, the military said.
Russia in turn accused Ukraine of launching drones at civilian targets in two Kursk districts. The acting governor of the region, Alexander Khinshtein, said on the messaging app Telegram that two people had been injured in the strikes.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said it had destroyed at least 49 drones fired by Ukraine overnight. Those drones had been fired at seven regions, according to a post on the ministry's Telegram channel.
