In requesting the list of Ukrainians from his Russian counterpart, Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets wrote on his Telegram messaging channel: "We are always ready to exchange prisoners of war!"
Kyiv and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since Russia's full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour in 2022.
The last swap took place in mid-October with each side bringing home 95 prisoners
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday that Ukraine was essentially sabotaging the process and has refused to take back its own citizens.
Maria Zakharova says Ukraine is sabotaging the POW exchange process. (AP PHOTO)
Zakharova said Russia's defence ministry had offered to hand over 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war but that Ukraine had taken only 279.
Lubinets, in turn, said that Ukraine was always ready to accept its citizens and accused Russia of slowing down the exchange process.
Russia's Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova said Ukraine has "politicised" the issue.
"We consider it necessary to return to a constructive dialogue and speed up the exchange of prisoners," Moskalkova wrote on Telegram.
Meanwhile, late on Saturday Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Ukraine's air defence units were trying to repel a Russian air attack on Kyiv.
"There was an explosion in the suburbs of Kyiv," Klitschko said.
"Air defence forces operating in the capital and its region. Stay in shelters!"
Debris from downed drones struck six city districts, wounding a police officer, damaging residential buildings and starting fires, according to city military administrator Serhiy Popko.
"Another night. Another air-raid alert. Another drone attack. The armed forces of the Russian Federation attacked Kyiv again according to their old and familiar tactics," Popko wrote on social media on Saturday.
All the drones aimed at Kyiv had been shot down, he said.
Ukrainian energy provider DTEK said a high-voltage line powering the capital and two distribution networks in the Kyiv region had been damaged.
DTEK said in a statement that electricity had mostly been restored and that repairs were underway.
Reuters correspondents reported hearing explosions in and around the city during an air-raid alert that lasted more than five hours.
One drone was seen flying low over the city amid the din of automatic-weapons fire.
Ukraine's military reported that air defences had destroyed 39 out of 71 Russian drones that had been launched, and that another 21 had been "locationally lost".
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said strikes were also reported in the central Poltava and northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
"This year, we have faced the threat of Shahed drones almost every night — sometimes in the morning, and even during the day," he wrote on social media, referring to the Iranian-made attack drones used by Russia.
Russian forces have carried out regular air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities behind the front lines of the war which began when Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.
Kyiv's military said on Friday that Moscow's forces had launched more than 2000 drones at civilian and military targets across Ukraine in October alone.
Russia has denied aiming at civilians and said power facilities are legitimate targets when they are part of Ukrainian military infrastructure.
27°C