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00:00Well, this overnight aerial attack situation is continuing in a pattern which we've seen
00:06for much of the past two and a half years, Ukraine and Russia both claiming that the
00:12other country flew drones over their territory and that they repelled some of those attacks.
00:18Now, according to Ukraine's air defence unit, they shot down one Russian missile and ten
00:25of twelve Russian drones, but we're also hearing about a number of casualties overnight
00:29here in Ukraine. So, three people reported killed by a strike in the southeastern Zaporizhia
00:38region in the village of Hulyapoli, which is really near the front line there. Also,
00:43two people reported killed in the southern city of Odessa and elsewhere in the country
00:48as well. We're hearing of other people being injured. So, these deadly nighttime attacks
00:52carrying on as the fighting grinds on as well in eastern Ukraine. You know, we're hearing
00:59claims by Russia that they've managed to retake territory there in this very, very slow and
01:05ongoing artillery war. But yeah, it's still very intense for the people living along those
01:10front line areas and in cities across Ukraine.
01:12And Catherine, a big development on Saturday, 206 people involved in a prisoner swap. What
01:20more do we know about that?
01:25This was the second prisoner swap in two days, so quite significant. The latest one saw 103
01:33Ukrainians being released from Russian captivity, military personnel, border guards, police,
01:38some of them officers, some of them people who'd been captured by the Russians while
01:42making that last stand in Mariupol and the Azovstal factory. I'm sure our viewers will
01:48remember. They've been released in exchange for 103 Russians. So, this is the latest step.
01:55It was in a prisoner exchange brokered by the United Arab Emirates. They've broken such
01:59deals before. President Zelensky has hailed this, saying that this was a positive step
02:06for the people of Ukraine. And an official that we contacted said that it was Ukraine's
02:13incursion into the Russian region of Kursk, which had allowed them to gain some negotiating
02:19leverage for these prisoner exchanges, saying that it showed the value of that surprise
02:23incursion where around a month ago, if you remember, Ukraine managed to penetrate around
02:2930 kilometres into Russian territory. Now, the Russians said they've launched a counteroffensive
02:34trying to take some villages back there. The Ukrainians say they're pushing that back.
02:39It's very difficult to access that area, of course, but it remains one of the most
02:43intense areas of fighting on the front lines. And Zelensky's saying it's proved useful not
02:47only in terms of these prisoner exchanges, but in terms of slowing that grinding offensive
02:51elsewhere in Ukraine, especially in the east, especially in the Donbas.