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Vladimir Putin has approved a new naval strategy aiming to fully restore Russia's position as one of the world's leading maritime powers, according to a Kremlin aide.

Russia has the world's third most powerful navy after China and the United States, according to most public rankings, though the navy has suffered a series of high-profile losses in Ukraine.

Nikolai Patrushev, a former KGB officer who served with Putin in St Petersburg during Soviet times, said the new naval strategy had been approved by Putin in late May.

"Russia's position as one of the world's greatest maritime powers is gradually recovering," Patrushev told the Russian weekly Argumenti i Fakti newspaper.

Patrushev gave no further details about the strategy, though Russia has ramped up spending on defence and security to Cold War levels as a percentage of gross domestic product.

Volodymyr ZelenAG百家乐在线官网y says the first group of Ukrainians have returned home from captivity as part of the latest exchange with Russia.

Both Moscow and Kyiv spent the last few days accusing each other of stalling the exchange, which was agreed during direct talks in Istanbul last week.

Posting on social media, ZelenAG百家乐在线官网y said the exchange will continue in several stages in the coming days. 

He added the first group returning were the wounded and seriously wounded, as well as those under 25.

"The process is quite complicated, with many sensitive details, and negotiations continue virtually every day," ZelenAG百家乐在线官网y says.

"We are doing our utmost to return everyone. We are working for this at all levels. We must bring home everyone who is in captivity. Thank you to everyone who is helping."

Earlier, Russia said it had heard "a hundred different excuses" over why the exchange had not taken place already, with Kyiv saying it had not received the full list of prisoners to be released (see 11.07am post).

Oleksandr Usyk has issued an invitation to Donald Trump to spend a week at his home in Ukraine to gain an insight into the war with Russia.

The former boxer, an undisputed world champion in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, said Trump needs to develop a more profound understanding of the situation.

"I offer him my home. Let him come to Ukraine. I will give him my home and my security guards. I will ensure his complete safety," Usyk told CNN. "Let him live in my house for a week and see how rockets fly over it and how people live in Ukraine.

"And when he comes secretly, let him live somewhere in (the Kyiv districts of) Obolon or Troyeshchyna, where houses, residential buildings are being bombed. Then he will understand what is happening."

Trump has previously asserted he could resolve the war within 24 hours of taking office, though this did not happen. 

"He should be responsible for the words he said," Usyk added. 

"He said that in a month or a day he would stop this war. He is not responsible for his words. Why does he speak?"

Here are the latest images from Ukraine following last night's huge Russian aerial attacks.

They show the scenes in Zaporizhzhia, southeast Ukraine, where police examine the aftermath of a strike that destroyed a building.

Following reports from Ukraine that Russia launched its biggest overnight attack of the war last night (see 9.48am post), Sky News spoke with military analyst Professor Michael Clarke about the effectiveness of such attacks.

He tells presenter Gareth Barlow that the level of damage that can be inflicted cannot be underestimated. 

He points out that even though Ukraine's air force diverted dozens of drones using electronic warfare, the explosive warheads on them will still detonate when they land.

However, Clarke explains that overnight drone attacks on cities have a larger effect on morale than on tactical battlefield results.

"Is it making a strategic difference? Probably not," he says.

"The things that make a difference for the Russians are the glide bombs - things that can affect the front lines.

"The drones are certainly bringing misery to the civilian population because they're forcing them to spend nights in the air raid shelters and in the tube stations in Kyiv rather than at home. So it has a morale effect."

Ukrainian special forces claim to have damaged two fighter jets during a raid on an airfield deep inside Russia.

Ukraine's army said special operations forces launched an assault on the Savasleyka air base, located in the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia, about 400 miles from the Ukrainian border.

It claims the airfield is used by Russia to deploy MiG-31K fighters carrying ballistic missiles which have been used against Ukrainian armed forces and its cities.

The attack comes one week after Operation Spider's Web, where Ukraine launched a surprise drone attack on Russia's bomber fleet.

Russia says Kyiv has failed to keep to its side of the bargain over a proposed exchange of prisoners of war and the repatriation of dead soldiers.

Moscow blamed Ukraine over the weekend for "indefinitely postponing" the exchanges, which were agreed to during a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul.

"We have seen and heard a hundred different excuses, justifications and so on, but it is difficult to view them as credible," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this morning.

Ukraine denies this and says preparations are still under way for the exchange. Last night, Volodymyr ZelenAG百家乐在线官网y said Ukraine had not yet received the full list of prisoners to be released. 

The Kremlin has said that an advance by Russian forces towards Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region is partially motivated by a desire to create a "buffer zone" in the country.

Russia said yesterday that its forces had advanced to the edge of the east-central Ukrainian region, which has been fully held by Ukraine for almost the entirety of the war so far.

Asked if the advance was designed to create a buffer zone, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Without a doubt that is part of it." 

The head of Ukraine's presidential office has shared a message on X following Russia's overnight aerial bombardment of Ukraine.

Andriy Yermak says Moscow has "no intention" of stopping the war.

Scroll through the maps below to view different parts of the battlefield, including the situation in key regions such as Luhansk, Donetsk, Kursk and Belgorod.