Russia launched the largest drone and missile attack on the war so far

First peace talks between two sides of the conflict in Syria: Moscow’s invasion of Kyiv, Ukraine’s largest city, and the fate of Russia’s troops

The first peace talks between the two sides since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Syria in the year 2002 were held in Istanbul earlier this month and they swapped 1,000 prisoners of war and civilians.

The mayor of the city warned residents of the attack ahead of time, saying more than 20 Russian drones were heading toward the city. He said that the debris fell on a shopping mall and a residential building during the attack. The emergency services were on their way to the site.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a student dormitory in Holosiivskyi district was hit by a drone and one of the building’s walls was on fire. In Dniprovskyi district, a private house was destroyed and in Shevchenkivskyi district, windows in a residential building were smashed.

The president and the ministry of defense of Russia said they brought home more soldiers on Saturday as a result of the release of 390 people a day earlier. The swap will be the largest in three years when more releases are expected over the weekend.

“We expect more to come tomorrow,” Zelenskyy said on his official Telegram channel on Saturday. The defense ministry of Russia did not give any details, but it said that it expected the exchange to continue.

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

The violence in the Obolon district killed by Russian drones and missiles: “A big breath of air” says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

The Obolon district, where a residential building was heavily damaged in the attack, was the hardest hit with at least five wounded in the area, the administration said.

The air raid sirens began as usual, but the drones started flying around as they always do, said Yurii Bondarchuk. Moments later, he heard a boom and saw shattered glass fly through the air.

He was smoking a cigarette while waiting for the firefighters to extinguish the flames, and he said that the balcony had been wiped out, along with the windows and doors.

13 civilians were killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine over the course of the weekend, according to regional authorities.

Three people died after a Russian ballistic missile targeted port infrastructure in Odesa on the Black Sea, local Gov. Oleh Kiper reported. Russia said the strike was on a cargo ship.

Russian missiles and drones hit more than 30 cities and villages in Ukranian, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

An official in northernUkraine who is not authorized to speak publicly, says it took place at the border with Belarus.

Those who did not see their loved ones since their release took solace in the fact that POWs provided information about when they were last seen.

“This is such a big news. She said that it was like a fresh breath of air. “I didn’t see him, but at least it’s some news. At least it’s news that gives us the opportunity to continue to breathe and live in peace.”

The Turkish-Ukraine Conflict in the Light of a Decelerator-Induced General Relativistic UAV-Ihnat

The only outcome from the peace talks in Istanbul that have yet to produce a ceasefire is a planned prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine. The exchanging of information was a rare event between the warring sides.

Battles continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed, and neither country has relented in its deep strikes.

After the May 16 Istanbul meeting, 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 maneuvering continued.

After the prisoner exchange was over, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would give Ukraine a document outlining its conditions for a peace agreement.

European leaders said Russian President Putin was dragging his feet in the peace process because he was trying to push his larger army’s initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.

The Istanbul meeting revealed that both sides remained far apart on key conditions for ending the fighting. A temporary ceasefire as a first step towards a peaceful settlement is supported by its Western allies.

The drone strikes injured three people in the Tula region south of Moscow, local Gov. Dmitriy Milyaev said, and sparked a fire at an industrial site there.

The drones hit a Tula plant that made chemicals used in bombs and rocket fuel, according to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

Ihnat said that it was the most massive strike on the territory of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

Kiev Day: The most massive air attack in Kiev since Kiev’s founding, and a plea to Putin to come to Kyiv with me and my daughter

The day was somber because it was a national holiday in the city, called Kyiv Day, marking the founding of the city in the 5th century.

That has been a long-standing demand of the Ukrainian leader but one that — despite warnings to Moscow by the United States and Europe — have not materialized in ways to deter Russia.

Zelenskyy wrote on X that Sunday’s targets included Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Chernihiv, Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Cherkasy regions.

A rough Sunday morning in Ukranian. The most massive Russian air attack in many weeks lasted all night,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X.

In the region of Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv, three children were killed, aged 8, 12 and 17, according to the emergency service. The service said that 12 people were injured. At least four people were killed in the Khmelnytskyi region, in western Ukraine. One man was killed in Mykolaiv region, in southern Ukraine.

The Fedorenkos watched their house burn to the ground in the village of Markhalivka outside of Kyiv.

“The street looks like Bakhmut, like Mariupol, it’s just terrible,” says 76-year-old Liubov Fedorenko, comparing their village to some of Ukraine’s most devastated cities in the war. She told the AP how grateful she was her daughter had not joined them for the weekend with her family.

“I was trying to persuade my daughter to come to us,” Fedorenko said, adding she told her daughter, “After all, you live on the eighth floor in Kyiv, and here it’s the ground floor.'”

“She said, ‘I can’t come.’ She didn’t come because the rocket hit the house on the side of the children’s rooms, Fedorenko said.

Ivan Fedorenko regrets letting their two dogs into the house after the air raid sirens went off. He said that they burned to death. I would like to bury them, but they are not allowed yet.