US President Donald Trump has announced a “major” prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine, which would be the largest in three years of war.
Kyiv and Moscow are due to swap 1,000 people each in a deal agreed at talks in Istanbul last week, but a senior official with knowledge of the matter said the exchange had not yet happened
AFP reports that aside from the thousands held since Moscow’s 2022 invasion, Russia also has held some Ukrainians since its 2014 Crimea annexation.
The number of Russian POWs in Ukraine is believed to be considerably smaller.
Zelensky has throughout the war encouraged the taking of Russian troops as prisoners to fill up what he calls Kyiv’s “exchange fund” for future swaps.
Ukraine took hundreds of Russian troops captive during Kyiv’s incursion into the Kursk region in 2024.
It has since also said it took some North Korean soldiers captive who fought for Russia in Kursk.
Kyiv has also jailed a growing number of people for allegedly collaborating with Russian forces and there is speculation that some of could be included in future swaps.
Last year, a Ukrainian Orthodox priest jailed for justifying Russia’s aggression was included in a prisoner swap with Russia.
Russia said in early May that a group of its civilians from the Kursk region that were taken to Ukraine’s Sumy were still there.
Until the Turkey talks, the only communication channels open between the warring neighbours in three years were on exchanges of prisoners and soldiers’ bodies as well as on the return of children taken into Russia during Moscow’s invasion.
AFP