MOSCOW/CHERNIHIV: Russia and Ukraine each exchanged 307 of their service personnel on Saturday on the second day of an extended prisoner swap set to be the largest in more than three years of conflict.
US President Donald Trump has suggested the swap – which should see 1,000 prisoners released on each side over three days – could herald a new phase in stop-start efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.
Saturday’s swap was announced by Russia’s defence ministry, and separately by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a post on the social media platform Telegram.
“Another 307 members of the Russian military were returned from territory controlled by the Kyiv regime. In exchange, 307 Ukrainian prisoners of war were transferred over,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement.
It said the Russian POWs would receive psychological and medical help in Belarus before travelling to Russia.
Both sides received 390 people in the first stage on Friday and are expected to exchange 1,000 each in total.
“We expect the exchange to continue tomorrow,” Zelensky said. “Our goal is to return each and every one of us from Russian captivity.”
Images released by Zelenskiy’s office showed freed Ukrainian service personnel arriving in buses at a rendezvous point inside Ukraine, where they hugged each other and draped themselves in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags.
Russia to hand over draft document to Ukraine
A short video released by the Russian defence ministry showed Russian service personnel disembarking from buses and posing with the Russian flag.
Russia has signalled it will send Ukraine its terms for a peace settlement after the swap, which is set to continue over the weekend — without saying what those terms would be.
On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia would be ready to hand Ukraine a draft document outlining conditions for a long-term peace agreement once the current prisoner exchange was completed.
The two sides have held regular prisoner swaps since the war started in February 2022 — but none have been on this scale.
Russia said it had received 270 Russian troops and 120 civilians, including some from parts of its Kursk region captured and held by Kyiv for months.
US President Donald Trump earlier congratulated the two countries for the swap.
Trump’s efforts to broker a ceasefire in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II have so far been unsuccessful, despite his pledge to rapidly end the fighting.
Diplomatic push
The prisoner exchange was agreed at talks in Istanbul on May 16 between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, who had come together at the urging of Trump.
After more than three years of fighting, thousands of POWs are held in both countries.
Russia is believed to have the larger share, with the number of Ukrainian captives held by Moscow estimated to be between 8,000 and 10,000.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have stepped up a gear in recent weeks, but the Kremlin has shown no sign it has walked back its demands for ending the fighting.
