Russia and Ukraine exchanged 205 prisoners of war on Friday, hours after rescue workers ended their search of a destroyed block of flats in Kyiv in which 24 people were killed, including three girls.
Most of the Ukrainian prisoners had been held since 2022, said President Zelensky.
The swap was part of a short-lived ceasefire ending this week with the launch of massive Russian strikes across Ukraine, including a missile attack that reduced 18 flats to rubble. Among the victims was 12-year-old Lyubava Yakovleva, whose father was killed during the war.
Meanwhile, Russian officials said four people, including a child, were killed when Ukrainian drones hit the city of Ryazan, south-east of Moscow.
Images on social media showed damage to two blocks of flats, which Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov said had been damaged by debris.
Twenty-eight people were hurt in the attack. Ukrainian’s drone commander said his forces had hit Ryazan’s oil refinery – one of the biggest in Russia.
The prisoner exchange is described as the first stage of a swap of 1,000 people on each side
