The Daily Populous Saturday May 24th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by bbc.com and submitted by Mrk2d

Thirteen killed in wave of Russian attacks across Ukraine

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EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Residents clear debris at the site of a nine-storey residential building struck by a drone in Kyiv

Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine have killed at least 13 people and injured 56 civilians across the country since Friday, according to regional officials. Russia launched 250 drones and 14 ballistic missiles against Kyiv alone, Ukraine's air force said, causing fires in residential buildings. At least 14 people were injured in the capital. It was one of the biggest combined aerial assaults on the city since the war began. The air force said it had downed six missiles and 245 drones.

"With each such attack, the world becomes more certain that the cause of prolonging the war lies in Moscow," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X. The overnight barrage came as Russia and Ukraine are taking part in prisoner swaps agreed after talks between the two sides in Turkey. Describing a "difficult night", Zelensky said there had been fires and explosions across Kyiv with homes, businesses and cars damaged by strikes or falling debris. Four people were killed in the eastern Donetsk Region; five in the southern Odesa and Kherson regions and four in the northeast Kharkiv region. Olha Chyrukha, a 64-year-old Kyiv resident, told Reuters news agency: "I wish they'd agree to a ceasefire. To bomb people like this - poor children. My three-year-old granddaughter was screaming scared." Commenting on the combined use of aerial weapons, Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said: "The enemy is improving its own tactics of using drones, while simultaneously striking with ballistics." Zelensky said only "additional sanctions targeting key sectors of the Russian economy" could push Moscow to agree to a ceasefire. Last week, Russia said Ukraine had launched hundreds of exploding drones at the country, including strikes over Moscow. The Russia's defence ministry said that 485 drones had been shot down.

Reuters A resident holds his dog as he looks an apartment building that was damaged during a Russian drone strike in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv

On Saturday, Zelensky announced that 307 Ukrainian prisoners had returned home as part of an exchange deal with the Kremlin. On Friday, Ukraine and Russia each handed over 390 soldiers and civilians in the biggest prisoner exchange since Russia launched its full-scale assault in February 2022. The two countries have agreed to swap a total of 1,000 prisoners each, and another exchange is expected on Sunday.

@ZelenskyyUa Ukrainians who had been captured by Russia are released as part of an exchange

Leandrys on May 24th, 2025 at 10:18 UTC »

Don't forget people, it's important for the peace efforts to let them enough time to prepare a memorandum and then a ceasefire, all they need is time to be sure of how to prepare peace.

Also, it's Biden's war, not mine, if I was president by the time, this war would never have begun. And you know, my doctor, he saw my results in the IQ test, beautiful results, beautiful, he never saw such results, he told me they were beautiful, he never saw such results like these, he said you're in the genius category, and Putin is a good guy I think, he 'ever wanted this war, it was all Biden's war, nice guy that putin, very clever, very smart, and yes, these IQ results, I wish you could see them, so beautiful.

esuardi on May 24th, 2025 at 09:58 UTC »

Fuck Russia. Fuck Trump and his cronies in washington taking care of a genocidal, geriatric, pilled-up grandpa.

Mrk2d on May 24th, 2025 at 09:46 UTC »

Russia launched 250 drones and 14 ballistic missiles against Kyiv, Ukraine's air force said, causing fires in residential buildings. It was one of the biggest combined aerial assaults on the city since the war began. The air force said it had downed six missiles and 245 drones.