Ukraine-Russia war live: Kyiv and Moscow exchange dozens more prisoners after huge drone and missile strike – UK Times

Officials have responded to the latest attack on Ukraine with horror, with Kyiv’s foreign minister calling for further sanctions.

Posting on X, Andrii Sybiha called it “clear evidence that increased sanctions pressure on Moscow is necessary to accelerate the peace process.”

Meanwhile, the EU’s ambassador to Kyiv described it as “horrific.”

“If anyone still doubts Russia wants war to continue — read the news,” Katarina Mathernovï wrote on the social network.

The debris of intercepted missiles and drones fell in at least six Kyiv city districts. According to the acting head of the city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, six people required medical care after the attack and two fires were sparked in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district.

Germany may consider reintroducing military conscription from as soon as next year if it does not attract enough volunteers for its armed forces, defence minister Boris Pistorius told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung on Saturday.

Part of the NATO alliance, Germany is looking to enhance its military strength following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but looks likely to fail to attract enough recruits. An additional 100,000 soldiers are needed in the coming years to meet NATO obligations, its armed forces have said.

Its Conservatives, which lead a coalition in which Pistorius’ Social Democrats (SPD) are junior partners, have revved up military spending and signalled openness to a compulsory service in the armed forces, which was abandoned in 2011.

“Our model is initially based on voluntary participation,” Pistorius said in an interview with the Sunday newspaper, which is already for sale on Saturdays.

“If the time comes when we have more capacity available than voluntary registrations, then we may decide to make it mandatory,” he added.

UK foreign secretary David Lammy has condemned Russia’s large-scale drone and missile attacks on Kyiv, saying they are “not the actions of a country seeking peace”.

In a statement on X, he said: “Russia targeted Ukraine again last night – with 14 missiles and hundreds of drones across the country.

“Another night of terror for Ukrainian civilians, with yet more injured and more homes destroyed.

“These are not the actions of a country seeking peace.”

The Russian activist and widow of the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny said Trump speaking to the Russian president “like they’re equal” is making him more powerful.

“Putin is crime person he is a kind of mafia boss. He kills people. He started the war,” Ms Navalnaya said when asked how she felt about Trump’s involvement in Ukraine peace talks.

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Yurii Bondarchuk, a local resident in Kyiv, said the air raid siren “started as usual, then the drones started to fly around as they constantly do.”

Moments later, he heard a boom and saw shattered glass fly through the air.

“The balcony is totally wiped out, as well as the windows and the doors,” he said, describing the damage to his apartment as he stood in the dark of the night, smoking a cigarette to calm his nerves while firefighters worked to extinguish the flames.

The air raid alert in Kyiv lasted more than seven hours, warning of incoming missiles and drones.

A total of more than 600 prisoners of war have been traded between Russia and Ukraine, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence.

It follows the release of nearly 800 soldiers on Friday, with both sides releasing 390 each.

On Saturday, Russia has said that 307 Ukrainian servicemen were returned to Kyiv in exchange for 307 members of Putin’s forces.

The exchanges are part of a deal that’s set to see 1,000 prisoners released from each side after negotiations took place in Istanbul this month.

Despite a prisoner swap marking a rare moment of co-operation, battles have continued along the roughly 620-mile front line, where tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed.

After the meeting in May in Istanbul, Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan called the prisoner swap a “confidence-building measure” and said the parties had agreed in principle to meet again.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that there has been no agreement yet on the venue for the next round of talks as diplomatic manoeuvres continued.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would give Ukraine a draft document outlining its conditions for a “sustainable, long-term, comprehensive” peace agreement, once the ongoing prisoner exchange had finished.