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Ukraine is working to restart prisoner exchanges with Russia that could bring home 1,200 Ukrainian captives, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday, a day after his national security chief reported progress in talks.
“We are … counting on the resumption of POW exchanges,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “Many meetings, negotiations and calls are currently taking place to ensure this.”
Rustem Umerov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said on Saturday that he held consultations mediated by Turkey and the United Arab Emirates on resuming the swaps.
He said both sides agreed to reactivate prisoner exchange agreements brokered in Istanbul to release 1,200 Ukrainians. Moscow did not immediately respond to the claim.
The Istanbul agreements, drawn up with Turkish mediation in 2022, set rules for large, coordinated prisoner swaps. Since then, Russia and Ukraine have traded thousands of prisoners, though exchanges have been irregular.
Umerov said technical talks would be held soon to finalise the procedural and organisational details, expressing hope that the returning Ukrainians could “celebrate the New Year and Christmas holidays at home — at the family table and next to their relatives.”
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Russian drone strikes overnight into Sunday damaged energy infrastructure in the Odesa region, including a solar power plant.
Ukraine is struggling to withstand relentless Russian aerial attacks that have caused rolling blackouts across the country just as winter approaches.
The combined missile and drone strikes on the power grid have come amid Ukraine’s efforts to hold back a Russian push to capture the eastern stronghold of Pokrovsk.
Russia claims control over two more villages
The Russian army has claimed it captured two villages in southern Ukraine, where its forces are making a slow advance against smaller Ukrainian units.
On Telegram, the Russian Ministry of Defence said its troops had taken control of Rivnopillia and Mala Tokmachka in the Zaporizhzhia region, after earlier this week claiming the capture of two other settlements.
Over 1200 attacks launched on Ukraine in past week
Russia has launched a total of 1217 drone and missile attacks on Ukraine since Sunday 9 November, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 176 drones and one missile overnight, adding that Ukrainian forces shot down or neutralised 139 of the drones.
The drones which hit 14 different locations were sent from the directions of Kursk, Oryol, Millerovo, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and Chauda – occupied territory of Crimea.
Energy infrastructure facilities were targeted in the region of Odesa including a solar power plant, where fires were quickly contained by rescuers, according to the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Oleh Kiper’s Telegram channel.
In a post on social media X, Zelenskyy wrote that recovery efforts are still on going in the regions of Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnirpo, Chernihiv and Sumy.
Russia shoots down 57 Ukrainian drones
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces shot down 57 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The governors of Russia’s Volgograd and Voronezh regions reported that they had repelled drone strikes on the night of 16 November. Volgograd governor Andrey Bocharov and Voronezh head Alexander Gusev shared the information via their administrations’ Telegram channels.
