Ukraine and Russia begin biggest wartime exchange of prisoners

Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Bloomberg News on May 23, 2025

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Ukraine and Russia began the biggest prisoner exchange since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, even as Moscow resists efforts for a ceasefire.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine took in 390 people from captivity in Russia a week after the two sides agreed on exchanging 1,000 prisoners each in talks in Istanbul. More groups of released prisoners of war are expected to arrive on Saturday and Sunday.

“Effectively, it is the only significant outcome of the meeting in Turkey,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram. “The Russians are blocking everything else.”

The Defense Ministry in Moscow said the swap had started, saying it had transferred 270 Ukrainian soldiers and 120 civilians to officials in Ukraine in return for the same numbers of Russian servicemen and civilians. The “large-scale exchange” is planned to continue in the coming days, the ministry said on Telegram.

Earlier on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump lauded a “major” prisoner swap before the warring sides had confirmed it, touting it as a sign of progress even as his efforts to broker an agreement to end the war have faltered.

“Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Friday, adding that the swap will go into effect “shortly.” He added: “This could lead to something big???”

The Istanbul meeting was the first direct talks between the warring parties in more than three years. Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t attend the gathering, instead sending a low-level delegation. That move was criticized by Ukraine and European allies, who accused the Kremlin of dragging its feet and standing by maximalist demands before agreeing to a ceasefire.

Trump subsequently held a phone call with Putin, after which he said the effort to reach a ceasefire agreement would lie with Moscow and Kyiv, prompting worries from Ukraine’s allies that the U.S. president was withdrawing from a mediating role.

As uncertainty lingers over U.S. support, Russia’s grinding advance in eastern Ukraine has slowed down and comes at the cost of large losses of personnel.

Until Friday’s swap, more than 4,700 Ukrainian citizens had been freed from Russian captivity over the course of the war so far, according to data from Kyiv’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of POWs.

Talks over a current swap was preceded by a major exchange of bodies from the front lines last week, serving as a grim reminder of the war’s human toll. In total, Ukraine has repatriated almost 10,000 bodies of its soldiers from territories now under Russia’s control, according to the coordination headquarters’ data.

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(With assistance from Moira Warburton and Mark Sweetman.)