The attack used almost 500 drones and missiles, breaking a record set just days earlier, as Russia tries to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses, which shot down most of the weapons.

Russia and Ukraine conducted a major prisoner exchange after delays threatened the only progress from recent Turkey peace talks. Both sides began transferring prisoners under 25, with returning Russian soldiers now in Belarus.

It restated Moscow's demands that Ukraine become a neutral country - ruling out membership of NATO - and that it protect the rights of Russian speakers, make Russian an official language and enact a legal ban on glorification of Nazism. Ukraine rejects the Nazi charge as absurd and denies discriminating against Russian speakers.