Russia and Ukraine Swap 205 Prisoners Amid Deadly Strikes in Kyiv and Ryazan

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 where 24 people died, including three girls.

Most of the Ukrainian prisoners had been held since 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The swap came as part of a short-lived ceasefire that ended this week with 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.

Russian officials said four people, including a child, died when Ukrainian drones struck the city of Ryazan, southeast of Moscow. Images on social media showed damage to two blocks of flats, which Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov said had been hit by debris.

Twenty-eight people were injured in the attack. Ukraine's drone commander said his forces targeted Ryazan's oil refinery, one of Russia's largest.

Rescue services in Kyiv's Darnytskyi district completed their 28-hour search of the rubble from a devastated nine-story apartment block on Friday. Residents and soldiers watched, waiting for news of missing relatives.

Kyiv observed a day of mourning Friday for the 24 victims of the strike.

The Nova Poshta postal service said two staff members, both named Dmytro, died in the attack; one was with his wife. Former hockey player Yuriy Orlov and his 24-year-old girlfriend Maryna Homeniuk, an English teacher, were among those killed. Kindergarten teacher Svitlana Moskalishyna also died.

The three girls killed were aged 12, 15 and 15. Lyubava Yakovleva's older sister was first listed as missing in the rubble but later confirmed dead. The girls' school posted on Facebook that the "scariest face of war is the children's lives it takes."

Volodymyr Zelensky brought flowers to the site and said pressure must be put on a Russia that "deliberately destroys lives and hopes to remain unpunished."

The Ukrainian leader said a Russian X-101 cruise missile had leveled the building to the ground. Most of the 18 destroyed flats on Thursday were single-room units or the bathrooms and kitchens of two-room apartments. One building entrance was turned to rubble.

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko praised rescuers for saving 30 lives.

Eighteen-year-old Ivan, one of the first to reach the strike site with his father, helped rescue victims. "A fire was burning, and there was smoke everywhere," the teenager told public broadcaster Suspilne. "I helped a policeman lower a disabled woman [to safety]; she couldn't walk and the policeman carried her in his arms."

Zelensky said the Russian missile was produced in recent weeks. "This means that Russia is still importing the components needed for missile production, as well as the necessary resources and equipment, in circumvention of global sanctions," he posted on social media.

He also honored the 205 Ukrainians freed in the first stage of a planned exchange of 1,000 prisoners per side. The deal was brokered by the United States and United Arab Emirates. Russia's defense ministry said 205 Russians were taken to Belarus for medical and psychological support.

Zelensky said those freed included Ukrainians who fought during the 2022 siege of Mariupol in the early months of Russia's full-scale invasion, as well as in border regions and at the Chornobyl nuclear plant.

The swap occurred during a three-day ceasefire agreed for May 9-11, which covered Russia's scaled-down Victory Day parade in Moscow. The truce saw violations and ended when Russian forces launched their largest drone attack since the war began.

Ukrainian officials reported 1,410 Russian drones and 56 missiles launched at cities and communities in a 24-hour period from May 13-14.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin spoke last Saturday of the war "heading to an end," but no negotiations have occurred since February, with little sign of progress recently.