KYIV, Ukraine -- Dozens of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war have returned home following a prisoner swap, officials on both sides said Saturday.
Top Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak said in a Telegram post 116 Ukrainians were freed.
He said the released POWs include troops who held out in Mariupol during Moscow's monthslong siege that reduced the southern port city to ruins, as well as guerrilla fighters from the Kherson region and snipers captured during the ongoing fierce battles for the eastern city of Bakhmut.
Russian defense officials, meanwhile, announced that 63 Russian troops had returned from Ukraine following the swap, including some "special category" prisoners whose release was secured following mediation by the United Arab Emirates.
A statement issued Saturday by the Russian Defense Ministry did not provide details about these "special category" captives.
At least three civilians have been killed in Ukraine over the past 24 hours as Russian forces struck nine regions in the country's south, north and east, according to reports on Ukrainian TV by regional governors on Saturday morning.
Two people were killed and 14 others wounded in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region by Russian shelling and missile strikes, local Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said Saturday morning on Telegram.
The casualty toll included a man who was killed and seven others who were wounded Friday after Russian missiles slammed into Toretsk, a town in the Donetsk region. Kyrylenko said 34 houses, two kindergartens, an outpatient clinic, a library, a cultural center and other buildings were damaged in the strike.
Seven teenagers suffered shrapnel wounds after an anti-personnel mine exploded late Friday in the northeastern city of Izium, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. He said they were all hospitalized but their lives were not in danger.
Elsewhere, regional Ukrainian officials reported overnight shelling by Russia of border settlements in the northern Sumy region, as well as the town of Marhanets, which neighbors the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Kyiv has long accused Moscow of using the plant, which Russian forces seized early in the war, as a base for launching attacks on Ukrainian-held territory across the Dnieper river.
Elsewhere, Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa and surrounding areas were plunged into the dark following a large-scale network failure, the country's grid operator reported.
Ukrenergo said in a Telegram update that the failure involved equipment "repeatedly repaired" after Russia's strikes on Ukraine's energy grid, and that residents should brace themselves for lengthy blackouts.
"Unfortunately, the scale of the accident is quite significant, and this time, the power supply restrictions will be longer. It is not yet possible to determine a specific time when [power] will be fully restored," the company said.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the energy ministry was sending "all the powerful generators it has in stock" to Odesa "within 24 hours" and that both the Ukrainian energy minister and the head of Ukrenergo were on their way to Odesa to oversee repair works.
BELARUSIAN DISSIDENTS
Also Saturday, the funeral for a Belarusian military volunteer and activist who died fighting on the front lines in eastern Ukraine was held in Kyiv.
Eduard Lobau was killed in fierce artillery battles in Vuhledar against Russian troops as part of a small but dynamic regiment of Belarusian dissidents fighting alongside the Ukrainian armed forces. His body will be taken to Warsaw for burial.
Russian troops have ramped up attacks in the east of Ukraine, particularly in the industrial towns of Bakhmut and Vuhledar. Moscow has said its main goal is to capture the eastern Donetsk province that it considers a part of Russia.
Lobau is the latest casualty of the Kalinowsky Regiment, the unit named after a prominent Belarusian revolutionary who initiated an uprising against imperial Russia in the late 1800s.
Volunteers oppose Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia. They believe Ukraine's victory over Russia will spur regime change in Minsk.
"This is a very special regiment, consisting only of Belarusians. This is not their country, this is not their nation, but it's their war," said Bohdan Yaremenko, a lawmaker in Ukraine's parliament who attended the funeral. "I am here as a sign of my support, and of my solidarity from my heart to theirs."
Olena Kharkhel held a portrait of Lobau in the church as his comrades paid their last respects. Her husband, also a Belarusian dissident, died fighting in the east with the regiment in June. He and Lobau had been good friends.
"By fighting against Russia, we can liberate Belarus from Lukashenko's regime," she said.
One by one, the volunteers walked to Lobau's coffin, draped with the Belarusian flag, to pay their last respects in Kyiv's Cathedral of St. Alexander. Most covered their faces to conceal their identities.
Lobau served four years of jail time for acts of disobedience in his native Belarus in 2010. Following his release in 2014, he fled to Ukraine and joined the armed forces as a military volunteer.
Belarusians make up a prominent contingent of foreign fighters in Ukraine. Russia's invasion of Ukraine propelled them to mobilize.
The regiment itself was formalized in March 2022 and has been active in numerous key battles from the early days of the war, including in Mykolaiv, Kherson and the defense of Bucha and Irpin. Lobau participated in the latter.
"We can say he spent his entire life defending high ideals and sacrificing for others," said friend and fellow volunteer Jan Melnikov.
Information for this article was contributed by Susie Blann, Joanne Kozlowska and Samya Kullab of The Associated Press.