KYIV (AFP) — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Sunday that a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin remained “the most effective way forward” as the two sides exchange prisoners and the country celebrated Independence Day.

Kyiv’s general said that Ukrainian troops had recaptured three villages in its Donetsk region that had fallen under Russian control. And Ukraine launched drone strikes on Russia, triggering a fire at a nuclear power plant.

After a push by United States President Donald Trump to broker a Ukraine-Russia summit, hopes for peace dimmed when Russia on Friday ruled out any immediate Putin-Zelensky meeting.

But Zelensky said Sunday that the “format of talks between leaders is the most effective way forward,” renewing calls for a bilateral summit with Putin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier accused Western countries of seeking “a pretext to block negotiations” and condemned Zelensky for “demanding an immediate meeting at all costs.”

Zelensky, speaking at a ceremony attended by Western officials including US envoy Keith Kellogg — whom he awarded with the Ukrainian Order of Merit — vowed to “to push Russia to peace.”

Also Sunday, Ukraine and Russia said they had each sent back 146 prisoners of war and civilians in the latest of a series of swaps that remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the rivals.

Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders welcomed the release of two Ukrainian journalists, Dmytro Khyliuk and Mark Kaliush, denouncing “their abductions and the abuse they suffered in detention.”

With the war having already claimed tens of thousands of lives, Russia has recently claimed new advances, including taking two villages in the eastern Donetsk region Saturday.