Diplomatic correspondent
Russian has launched a massive drone attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city, the mayor of Kharkiv has said, killing at least three and injuring a further 21.
Ihor Terekhov said that overnight Russia launched 48 drones, two missiles and four gliding bombs in an attack he described as “open terror”.
It comes after a massive wave of drones and missiles struck across Ukraine on Thursday night. Moscow said the strikes were in response to “terrorist attacks by the Kyiv regime”, following Ukraine’s surprise raids on Russian air bases last Sunday.
Meanwhile, Russian and Ukrainian officials released conflicting accounts about when a prisoner swap agreed at earlier talks will take place.
Some 18 apartment buildings and 13 other homes in Kharkiv were hit overnight during Friday’s attack, the city’s mayor said. A baby and a 14 year-old girl were among the injured, he added.
One civilian industrial facility was attacked by 40 drones, one missile and four bombs, Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said, adding that there may still be people buried under the rubble.
Two people were also killed in Russian strikes on Kherson, in southern Ukraine, local authorities said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha urged allies to increase pressure on Moscow and to take “more steps to strengthen Ukraine” in response to Russia’s latest attacks.
Six people were killed and 80 injured across Ukraine the previous night, when Russia attacked the country with more than 400 drones and nearly 40 missiles.
EPAUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was “buying himself time to keep waging the war”, and that “pressure must be applied” to stop the attacks.
During the latest round of direct talks in Istanbul earlier this week, the two warring sides agreed to exchange all sick and heavily wounded prisoners of war, those aged under 25, as well as the bodies of 12,000 soldiers.
Moscow’s chief negotiator at the meeting, Vladimir Medinsky, claimed on Saturday that Ukraine had “unexpectedly postponed both the acceptance of bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war for an indefinite period”.
He further claimed that the bodies of more than one thousand slain Ukrainian soldiers had been taken to an agreed exchange point but that Ukrainian officials never arrived.
A list of 640 prisoners of war had also been handed to Ukraine “in order to begin the exchange”, Medinsky wrote on social media.
Ukrainian officials responded angrily to the allegations, telling Russia to “stop playing dirty games”.
ReutersA statement from Ukraine’s Coordination for PoWs office said that the comments “do not correspond to reality or to previous agreements”.
The Coordination HQ said both sides had been working on preparations for the exchange over the past week and alleged that Russia was not sticking to the agreed parameters of the swap.
It added that Ukraine had submitted its PoW lists according to the “clearly defined categories” of the deal, but that Russia had submitted “alternative lists that do not correspond to the agreed-upon approach”.
While an agreement on the repatriation of bodies had been reached, a date had not been set, Ukraine said, with Russia taking “unilateral steps that had not been coordinated”.
The barrages over the past two nights came after Ukrainian drone strikes targeted Russian strategic warplanes at four air bases deep inside Russia.
Ukraine’s security service SBU said at least 40 Russian aircraft were struck during the so-called “Operation Spider’s Web” last Sunday.
Ukraine says it used 117 drones that were first smuggled into Russia, then placed inside wooden cabins mounted on the back of lorries and concealed below remotely operated detachable roofs.
The lorries were then apparently driven to locations near the Russian air bases by drivers who were seemingly unaware of their cargo. The drones were then launched remotely.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the Ukrainians had given Putin “a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of them last night”.
He earlier said that during a phone call, Putin had told him “very strongly” that Moscow would “have to respond” following Ukraine’s airfield attacks.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It currently controls around 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014.
Peace talks between the two sides have so far failed to secure a ceasefire, and both sides remain deeply divided on how to end the war, with Ukraine pushing for an “unconditional ceasefire” as a first step, something Russia has repeatedly rejected.
Additional reporting by Jaroslav Lukiv and Vitaliy Shevchenko
