Russia launched its biggest barrage of the war with nearly 500 drones at Ukraine, while the Kremlin says it remains open to prisoner exchanges.

Ukraine sent dozens of its own citizens to Russia last month, releasing them from prisons in an attempt to secure the release of dozens of Ukrainian civilians held illegally in Russian jails – a move

Russian officials say that Moscow is still awaiting confirmation from Kyiv on a planned exchange of 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action.

Russia said its ground forces crossed into Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time, a symbolic milestone in their grinding offensive as prospects for a US-brokered ceasefire remain elusive.