A planned exchange of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war failed to take place on Saturday, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of postponing the swap at the last minute, which Ukrainian officials dismissed as more “dirty games” from the Kremlin.

Russia and Ukraine held a second round of peace talks where they agreed to exchange more prisoners and to return the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers.

Russia struck Ukraine with a thunderous aerial bombardment overnight, further dampening hopes that the warring sides could reach a peace deal anytime soon.

Russia bombarded Ukraine’s second-largest city with massive strikes in the early hours of Saturday, its mayor said, one night after Moscow carried out one of the war’s largest aerial assaults on Ukraine.

Ukrainian air defense units shot down 406 out of 452 Russian drones and missiles during a nighttime attack on Friday against the capital, Kiev, and other regions. Far from reaching an agreement for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine,

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday that its forces had carried out a massive and successful strike on military and military-related targets in Ukraine overnight in response to what it called Ukrainian "terrorist acts" against Russia.

Ukraine hacks Russia's Tupolev bomber producer, source claims ・Putin's 'disregard' for troops highlighted as Russian losses approach 1 million, study finds ・Ukraine expects to exchange 500 POWs in next swap with Russia,

The United States assesses that Ukraine's drone attack over the weekend hit as many as 20 Russian warplanes, destroying around 10 of them, two U.S. officials told Reuters, a figure that is about half the number estimated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.