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KYIV BURNS
Putin launches blitz on Kyiv with 250 drones & 14 missiles hours before another 300 Ukrainians released in prisoner swap
Massive fires were seen raging across Kyiv's skyline after the heavy blitz
VLADIMIR Putin overnight launched a massive blitz targeting Ukraine's capital city Kyiv in one of the war's heaviest airstrikes.
Dozens were injured after the Russian forces launched some 250 drones and 14 Iskander-M ballistic missiles in one of the biggest combined aerial attacks to date.
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Massive fires were seen raging across Kyiv's skyline after the heavy blitz.
Plumes of smoke were seen billowing from civilian buildings in Ukraine's night sky.
The air raid alert in Kyiv lasted more than seven hours overnight, warning of incoming missiles and drones.
A fire broke out in apartments on the third and fourth floors of a five-storey residential building in the Solomianskyi district.
Another fire broke out on the balconies of a nine-storey building in the Obolonskyi district, reports.
Emergency workers and Kyiv's fire teams were seen working to rescue people from the targeted sites.
The air blitz came just hours before Russia and Ukraine swapped hundreds of soldiers and civilians to mark the biggest prisoner exchange since the start of the war.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky called it a "difficult night for Ukraine" and said all the strikes targeted civilian population.
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He wrote on X: "250 strike drones, the absolute majority of them Iranian 'Shaheds' and 14 ballistic missiles.
"Odesa, Vinnytsia, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kyiv, Dnipro regions suffered damages. All strikes targeted civilians. There are fatalities."
Tymur Tkachenko, acting head of Kyiv military administration, said the debris of intercepted missiles and drones fell in at least four city districts of the Ukrainian capital early Saturday.
According to Tkachenko, six people required medical care after the attack, and two fires were sparked in the Solomianskyi district of Kyiv.
The State Emergency Service said: "Information on possible casualties is being confirmed."
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Kyiv's mayor Vitalii Klitschko warned residents of more than 20 Russian strike drones heading towards the city.
As the attack continued, he said drone debris fell on a shopping mall and a residential building in the Obolon district of Kyiv.
Local resident Yurii Bondarchuk said the air raid siren started as usual, and then the drones started to fly around as they constantly did.
Moments later, he heard a boom and saw shattered glass fly through the air.
The balcony was totally wiped out, as well as the windows and the doors, he said, describing the damage to his apartment.
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The prisoner swap on Friday was the first phase of a complicated deal involving the exchange of 1,000 prisoners from both Russia and Ukraine.
It will be the largest prisoners and civilians swap since the start of the war.
Zelenskiy said 307 of his country's service personnel returned home today after 390 others were released yesterday.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the same number of Russian prisoners of war had been handed over by Ukraine.
Scenes of crying and skinny Ukrainian soldiers being returned home after imprisonment have been seen before.
Swaps have gone ahead throughout the war, with each side releasing footage of bitter-sweet reunions.
But President Donald Trump hopes the latest swap could be the first step in a peace deal, after Russia and Ukraine held their first direct talks in Istanbul last week.
Trump also spoke to Putin on the phone for a straight two hours earlier this week in a bid to put an end to the war.
He said after the call negotiations are set to begin "immediately"
Hailing the swap deal, he wrote on Truth Social: "A major prisoners swap was just completed between Russia and Ukraine.
“It will go into effect shortly. Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation. This could lead to something big???”
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Putin spoke to Russian state media after coming off the call and admitted that he must make a peace deal with Ukraine.
He described the conversation as "very productive" and "quite candid" which was "highly useful".
The tyrant also said that Russia is "ready to work with the Ukrainian side" on a possible future peace agreement, but both sides must be willing to compromise.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last night that 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.
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But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there has been no agreement yet on the venue for the next round of talks to end the fighting as diplomatic manoeuvring continued.
Meanwhile, European leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts while he tries to press his larger army's battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.
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