Ukraine's military said on Thursday it had launched an attack on an airport in Russia's Krasnodar region overnight, causing explosions and a fire, as Moscow and Kiev exchanged 150 prisoners.
The army added that Russian forces use the airport to store and launch drones to attack Ukraine, and to maintain aircraft that carry out missions in southern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, one person was killed and four others were injured on Wednesday in an explosion that targeted a recruitment center in western Ukraine, according to authorities, in the third incident of its kind in a matter of days.
“An explosion occurred at the site of the regional recruitment and social support center in the Kamianets-Podilsky district,” Sergei Tyurin, head of the Khmelnytskyi region’s military administration, wrote on Telegram.
Later, Ukrainian police chief Ivan Vyzhevsky confirmed that the dead man had brought the explosives.
"It is an attack by the Russian Federation's intelligence service to stir up a false opinion in society and destabilize it," he said in a report.
The issue of mobilization is controversial in Ukraine, as many Ukrainians consider the conscription system, which has seen numerous corruption scandals, to be unfair.
Prisoner exchange
On the other hand, Moscow announced yesterday that it had exchanged 150 Ukrainian military prisoners of war with Kiev for an equal number of Russian military personnel, in one of the few issues on which the two warring countries have been able to cooperate so far.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that 150 of its soldiers held by Ukraine were exchanged for 150 prisoners of war from the other side.
She noted that the Russian soldiers are now in Belarus (a close ally of Russia and a neighbor of the two countries) to receive "psychological and medical care," adding that the exchange was the result of a negotiation process.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram, "Today is a beautiful day for all of us."
"We are taking back 150 prisoners in Russia from our defenders," he added, without mentioning the servicemen who were returned to Moscow in exchange.
Zelensky explained that among the released soldiers are soldiers, sergeants and officers, some of whom have been detained in Russia for more than two years.
Russia and Ukraine said on Wednesday that the exchange took place with the participation of the UAE, which has been playing an active role in talks and prisoner exchange deals between Kiev and Moscow, and is also mediating the return of Ukrainian children from Russia to their country.
Since the start of the Russian war on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Moscow and Kiev have exchanged hundreds of prisoners, and they also regularly exchange the bodies of soldiers who fell in battle.