Russian continues blasting Ukraine as plans for peace talks loom

At least one person was killed in Ukraine Friday night as Russia continued its unrelenting attacks, despite both parties reportedly inching closer to a new round of peace talks.

A barrage of more than 20 Russian drones rained down on residential areas in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and the northeastern city of Kharkiv overnight, according to officials. One civilian was killed and almost two dozen were injured, including two girls — 12 and 17-years-old — and three emergency workers.

The strikes sparked fires that caused the partial collapse of a four-story apartment building and tore through the upper floors of a 23-story high-rise, leading to the evacuation of about 600 residents.

The Kremlin’s attack also included 86 Iranian Shahed and decoy drones blasted across the country into Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.

“Russia continues its tactics of targeted terror against our people,” Zelensky said in the post.

He called on Western countries to keep the pressure on Russia, including through sanctions.

“The sooner the sick people in the Kremlin lose the ability to finance the war, the more lives we can save in Ukraine,” Zelensky said.

In the 24 hours leading up to the nighttime attack, Russia bombarded its neighbor with hundreds more drones and cruise and ballistic missiles, according to Ukraine’s air force.

The attacks followed an assault on Kyiv Tuesday that killed 28 and injured 142 others — marking the deadliest onslaught on the capital city this year.

Meanwhile, the warring countries completed another round of prisoner exchanges on Friday, the second trade of POWs and soldiers’ remains in two days, though neither side specified how many people were involved in the swap.

Zelensky said on X that most of his country’s POWs had been held by Russia for more than two years, following their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The oldest of the released captives was 63 years old and another, a 45-year-old service member, was released on his birthday, Ukrainian negotiator Dmytro Lubinets said.

Zelensky also charged Russian President Vladimir Putin with using the return of the dead to obscure the scale of its military losses from the public, the Kyiv Independent reported.

At a press conference Friday, Zelensky said authorities confirmed that at least 20 of the bodies returned as Ukrainians were actually Russian soldiers.

The two countries have carried out a series of swaps since renewing peace talks, which in Istanbul last month.

The last negotiations were held on June 2 and though Kyiv has not spoken recently of them resuming, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that the date for the next round is expected to be agreed upon this coming week.

With Post wires