Prisoner swap goes ahead as Kyiv mourns 24 killed in Russian strike on flats

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. Prisoner swap goes ahead as Kyiv mourns 24 killed in Russian strike on flats22 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on GoogleMariana Matveichuk ,In KyivandPaul Kirby ,Europe digital editorAFP via Getty ImagesThe prisoner exchange is described as the first stage of a swap of 1,000 people on each sideRussia 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.

The Details

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. Facebook/Kyiv Lyceum 323Lyubava Yakovleva, 12, was the youngest of the victims of the missile strike on KyivRescue services in the Darnytskyi district of south-east Kyiv completed their search of the rubble of a devastated nine-storey apartment block on Friday.

Throughout the 28-hour operation residents and soldiers looked on, waiting for news of missing relatives. Kyiv was marking a day of mourning on Friday for the 24 victims of the strike. The Nova Poshta postal service said two of its staff, both named Dmytro, had been killed in the attack, one of them alongside his wife.

Former hockey player Yuriy Orlov and his 24-year-old girlfriend Maryna Homeniuk, an English teacher, were among the victims. A kindergarten teacher, Svitlana Moskalishyna, was also killed. The 's Abdujalil Abdurasulov reports from the site of apartment blocks in Kyiv hit by Russian strikesThe three girls who died were 12, 15 and 15.

What Experts Say

Lyubava Yakovleva's elder sister was initially declared missing in the rubble, and it was later reported that she too had been killed. The girls' school said on Facebook that the "scariest face of war is the children's lives it takes". Among those bringing flowers to the scene was Volodymyr Zelensky, who said pressure had to be brought to bear on a Russia that "deliberately destroys lives and hopes to remain unpunished".

The Ukrainian leader said the building had been practically levelled to the ground by a Russian X-101 cruise missile. Ukraine rescuers pull dead from rubble of Kyiv flats after massive Russian strikesMost of the 18 flats destroyed in Thursday's strike were single-room apartments, or the bathrooms and kitchens of two-room apartments.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.