The Albany Gazette - Kyiv in mourning after 24 killed as Ukraine, Russia swap POWs

Retaliatory overnight strikes by Kyiv's army, launched as bodies were still being pulled from the rubble in Kyiv, killed four, including a child, in the Russian city of Ryazan, Russian officials said.

Zelensky visited the site of the building ripped apart by a Russian missile, where all the victims were killed.

"Here, Russia took the lives of 24 people, including three children," Zelensky said, after walking through a courtyard littered with rubble.

The three children killed were all girls -- aged 12, 15 and 17.

The youngest -- named as Liubava Yakovleva -- had already seen her father killed fighting the Russian invasion, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.

"Rescue operations lasted more than 28 hours, 30 people were thankfully saved due to the tireless efforts of our emergency workers," she said on social media.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 24 people were still in hospital.

- POW swap -

The scenes in Kyiv contrasted with elation to the north, where 205 Ukrainian soldiers were freed in the latest POW exchange with Moscow.

AFP reporters saw the released fighters -- with shaven-heads and draped in Ukrainian flags -- cheering, crying, embracing one another and waiting to be reunited with their families.

Kyiv freed the same number of Russian soldiers.

Moscow said its 205 released troops were brought to its ally Belarus, where they were receiving "psychological and medical assistance."

The exchanges remain one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between the two sides, at war since Russia ordered troops into its neighbour in February 2022.

Zelensky said the release was the "first stage of the 1,000 for 1,000 exchange" that had been brokered and previously announced by US President Donald Trump.

Most of the freed Ukrainian troops had been in Russian captivity since 2022, including those who fought for Mariupol's steelworks Azovstal at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which briefly fell to Moscow at the start of its invasion.

Thursday's devastating attack on Kyiv -- the deadliest on the Ukrainian capital for months -- further hit already slim prospects for a breakthrough in stalled talks on ending the war.

Kyiv's allies accused Russia of mocking diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

Moscow has shown no sign of backing down from its maximalist aims in Ukraine, demanding Kyiv give up four eastern and southern regions that Russia claimed in 2022 to have annexed.

Fresh Russian attacks on Friday killed one person in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

The head of the northern Chernigiv region, Vyacheslav Chaus, said a Russian missile struck a village, setting a house on fire.

"A mother and daughter were wounded. The woman is 45 and the girl is 13. Both are in hospital," he said.

In Russia, officials said Ukrainian overnight drone strikes on an apartment block in the city of Ryazan -- south-west of Moscow -- killed four people, including a child.

"Today at night, the territory of the Ryazan region was attacked by 99 enemy drones," Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov said on social media.

"The number of dead, unfortunately, rose to four people, including a child."

Moscow said Ukraine had targeted two residential buildings and industrial facilities.

Unverified social media videos showed plumes of smoke rising over Ryazan -- a city of around 500,000 -- and a high-rise apartment block with several blackened floors.

Kyiv has hit Russia with retaliatory drone strikes throughout Moscow's offensive, but deadly attacks -- especially close to Moscow -- are rare.

(F.Jackson--TAG)