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The United Nations previously reported in March that an increasing number of executions had been documented
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Moscow has executed more than 150 prisoners of war after they surrendered to Russian forces, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency has said.
The United Nations also reported in March that they had documented increasing numbers of cases in which Russian forces deliberately killed soldiers, while intelligence officials have cited multiple instances of Putin’s forces receiving direct orders to kill.
The statement comes shortly after a large-scale prisoner swap commenced between Ukraine and Russia, which saw 800 prisoners released on Friday and a further 600 released on Saturday.
Meanwhile, at least 15 people were injured after Russia attacked Ukraine‘s capital Kyiv early today with drones and missiles, triggering fires and strewing debris in districts throughout the city, the city’s mayor said.
The overnight strikes come after several days of some 800 attacks on targets inside Russia, including capital Moscow. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov vowed yesterday to respond to those attacks.
The Ukrainian president renewed calls for global pressure on Moscow for a ceasefire after 390 prisoners were returned to Ukraine yesterday, with more to follow over the weekend in the “thousand for a thousand” war swap. The swap took place at the border with Belarus in northern Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian official.
Yurii Bondarchuk, a local resident in Kyiv, said the air raid siren “started as usual, then the drones started to fly around as they constantly do.”
Moments later, he heard a boom and saw shattered glass fly through the air.
“The balcony is totally wiped out, as well as the windows and the doors,” he said, describing the damage to his apartment as he stood in the dark of the night, smoking a cigarette to calm his nerves while firefighters worked to extinguish the flames.
The air raid alert in Kyiv lasted more than seven hours, warning of incoming missiles and drones.
A total of more than 600 prisoners of war have been traded between Russia and Ukraine, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence.
It follows the release of nearly 800 soldiers on Friday, with both sides releasing 390 each.
On Saturday, Russia has said that 307 Ukrainian servicemen were returned to Kyiv in exchange for 307 members of Putin’s forces.
The exchanges are part of a deal that’s set to see 1,000 prisoners released from each side after negotiations took place in Istanbul this month.
Despite a prisoner swap marking a rare moment of co-operation, battles have continued along the roughly 620-mile front line, where tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed.
After the meeting in May in Istanbul, 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 manoeuvres continued.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would give Ukraine a draft document outlining its conditions for a “sustainable, long-term, comprehensive” peace agreement, once the ongoing prisoner exchange had finished.
Russian troops have captured the settlements of Stupochki, Otradne and Loknia in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Sumy regions, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday.
The battlefield report has not been independently confirmed.
Kyiv’s military intelligence agency have said that Russian forces have executed Ukrainian prisoners more than 150 times.
Intelligence officials said they had received reports of multiple instances where a “direct orders to kill” prisoners of war had been received by Putin’s troops.
According to the agency, these acts are “not isolated incidents” but part of a deliberate and systematic policy of the Russian leadership.
In March, the United Nations also reported a growing number of cases in which Russian forces deliberately killed or maimed Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered or attempted to surrender.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 14 ballistic missiles and 250 Shahed drones overnight, officials said, adding that Ukrainian forces shot down 6 missiles and neutralized 245 drones — 128 drones were shot down and 117 were thwarted using electronic warfare.
The Kyiv City Military Administration said it was one of the most massive combined missile and drone attacks on the capital.
“A difficult night for all of us,” the administration said in a statement.
The debris of intercepted missiles and drones fell in at least six city districts of the Ukrainian capital.
According to the acting head of Kyiv’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, six people required medical care after the attack and two fires were sparked in the Solomianskyi district of Kyiv.
The Obolon district, where a residential building was heavily damaged in the attack, was the hardest hit. There were at least five wounded in the area, the administration said.
Russia and Ukraine have begun a major prisoner exchange swapping hundreds of soldiers and civilians.
It marks the first phase of an exchange that marked a moment of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire in the three-year-old war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the first phase brought home 390 Ukrainians, including soldiers and civilians, with further releases expected over the weekend that will make it the largest swap of the war.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it received the same number from Ukraine.
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Both Ukraine and Russia said they will comply with a request from U.S. President Donald Trump to hold fresh talks about a peace deal. The two sides carried out a major prisoner exchange on Friday, which Trump suggested could be the first step towards more positive developments.
However, Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of not being serious about seeking an end to the fighting, with Russia launching a “massive” drone attack overnight on the Ukrainian capital.
A huge attack overnight on Ukraine by Russian drones and ballistic missiles was a fresh demonstration that Moscow is blocking a ceasefire deal to end the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
“It was a tough night for all of Ukraine,” Zelenskiy wrote on social media platform Telegram.
“With each such attack, the world becomes convinced that the reason for the war being dragged out is Moscow,” he wrote. “Only additional sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy will force Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.”
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