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Kyiv: Russia launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the three-year war, the Ukrainian air force said Monday, as the Kremlin pressed its summer offensive amid direct peace talks that have yet to deliver progress on stopping the fighting.

Despite the difficulties in reaching a ceasefire, Russia and Ukraine swapped another batch of prisoners of war Monday.

In addition to the 479 drones, 20 missiles of various types were fired at different parts of Ukraine from Sunday to Monday, according to the air force, which said the barrage targeted mainly central and western areas.

Ukraine’s air force said its air defences intercepted and destroyed 277 drones and 19 missiles, claiming only 10 drones or missiles hit their targets. Officials said one person was injured. It was not possible to independently verify the claims.

A recent escalation in aerial attacks has coincided with a renewed Russian battlefield push along eastern and northeastern parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Sunday that in some of those areas, “the situation is very difficult.” He provided no details.

Ukraine is short-handed on the front line against its bigger enemy and needs more military support from its Western partners, especially air defences. But uncertainty about the US policy on the war has fuelled doubts about how much help Kyiv can count on.

Ukraine has produced some stunning counter-punches, however. Its June 1 drone attack on distant Russian air bases was unprecedented in its scope and sophistication.

Russia intensifies its attacks

The Ukrainian General Staff said special operations forces struck two Russian fighter jets stationed at the Savasleyka airfield in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region located about 650 kilometres northeast of the Ukrainian border.

The statement did not say how the planes were hit and there was no immediate comment on the claim from Russian authorities. Some Russian war bloggers said there was no damage to the warplanes.

Russian officials have said the recent intensified assaults are part of a series of retaliatory strikes for Ukraine’s drone attack on air bases that were hosting nuclear-capable strategic bombers. A strike on a Ukrainian air base in Dubno, in the western Rivne region, was one such response, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

Two recent rounds of direct peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul have yielded no significant breakthroughs beyond pledges to swap prisoners as well as thousands of their dead and seriously wounded troops. Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated he will keep fighting until his conditions are met.

Russia and Ukraine exchange more POWs

The exchange of hundreds of soldiers and civilians has been a small sign of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to agree on a ceasefire.

More prisoners were swapped Monday in a staggered process taking place over the coming days, Zelenskyy and the Russian Defence Ministry said, although neither side said how many.

Those who were swapped included wounded soldiers, as well as those under 25, Zelenskyy said. “The process is quite complicated, there are many sensitive details, negotiations continue virtually every day,” he added.

In the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine, dozens of anxious relatives gathered outside a hospital and formed a human corridor to see whether their loved ones were among those freed.

Many held up photos of sons, husbands and brothers in hopes that someone might recognise them and offer any news. One by one, the returning soldiers passed silently through the corridor, their expressions a mixture of joy and exhaustion.

Many in the crowd hadn’t received official word on their loved ones for months, and some of them for years.

Tetiana Lytvyn, 38, of Chernihiv, was among those waiting. She wasn’t looking for one person, but two — her father and a cousin, both of whom went missing last year.

“The war might end,” she added, “but for those of us with family still missing — the war will never be over until they come home.”

Lytvyn’s cousin, 21-year-old Mykola Dmytruk, disappeared while his wife was pregnant. “He has a daughter now,” she said. “She’s 5 months old.”

Russia and Ukraine have disagreed over the transfer of the bodies of soldiers killed in action. The Russian Defence Ministry alleged Ukraine failed to pick up the bodies of its fallen soldiers that Russia made available for collection over the weekend.

But Zelenskyy claimed that Moscow hadn’t sent to Kyiv the names of more than 1,000 Ukrainians whose bodies are in Russian-controlled territories as had been agreed. He accused Russian authorities of playing “dirty” games.

Even so, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the swap is expected to go ahead, although he said there were no specific arrangements so far for the transfer.

Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said the exchange of bodies will begin this week.

Long-range drone attacks continue

Russia has repeatedly targeted civilian areas of Ukraine with Shahed drones during the war, as happened on Sunday night. The attacks have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations. Russia says it only attacks military targets.

Ukraine has developed long-range drones that continue to strike deep inside Russia.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it shot down 49 Ukrainian drones overnight over seven Russian regions.

Two drones hit a plant specializing in electronic warfare equipment in the Chuvashia region, located more than 600 kilometres east of Moscow, local officials reported.