Major Russia-Ukraine prisoner-of-war exchange under way

Russia and Ukraine began a major prisoner swap on Friday expected to be the biggest of the war, as agreed last week at their first direct talks in more than three years, a Ukrainian military source said.

Ukrainian authorities told reporters to assemble at a location in the northern Chernihiv region in anticipation that some freed prisoners could be brought there. The Ukrainian military source said the swap was still under way.

By mid-afternoon Moscow time, Russian state media had not yet reported the exchange was under way, and the Russian defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russia and Ukraine each agreed after two hours of talks in Istanbul last week to swap 1,000 prisoners, but failed to agree to a ceasefire proposed by US President Donald Trump. Previous prisoner swaps have been mediated by the United Arab Emirates.

The prisoner swap was the only concrete step towards peace the two sides agreed at their talks in Istanbul.

“Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation. This could lead to something big?” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Trump had said the swap was already complete.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides are believed to have been wounded or killed in Europe's deadliest war since World War 2, though neither side publishes accurate casualty figures. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have also died as Russian forces have besieged and bombarded Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine says it is ready for a 30-day ceasefire immediately, but Russia, which launched the war by invading its neighbour in 2022 and now occupies about a fifth of Ukraine, says it will not pause its assaults until conditions are met first. A member of the Ukrainian delegation called those conditions “non-starters”.

Trump, who has shifted US policy from supporting Ukraine towards accepting some of Russia's account of the war, had said he could tighten sanctions on Russia if Moscow blocked a peace deal. But after speaking to Putin on Monday he decided to take no action for now.

Moscow says it is ready for peace talks while the fighting goes on, and wants to discuss what it calls the war's “root causes”, including its demands Ukraine cede more territory, and be disarmed and barred from military alliances with the West. Kyiv says that is tantamount to surrender and would leave it defenceless in the face of future Russian attacks.

Reuters