Donald Trump announces that there has been a “major exchange of prisoners” between Russia and Ukraine. What did the White House leader send
An exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine also took place on March 19, 2025. Credit Line: Ukraine President Office via Zuma Press Wire / Splashnews.com / Splash / Profimedia
Donald Trump announced on Friday that a major exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine had just ended. The announcement of the US president comes one week after the discussions held by the two parties in Istanbul, according to Reuters, quoted by News.ro.
“A major exchange of prisoners has just been completed between Russia and Ukraine. It will come into effect shortly. Congratulations to both parties for this negotiation. This could lead to something big?”, Trump said in a Social Truth post.
Neither Kiev nor Moscow have yet confirmed the statements of the US President.
According to Reuters, an official of Ukrainian military intelligence services said on Thursday that Ukraine presented a list of 1,000 prisoners of war, in preparing a major future exchange.
This is after an agreement for such an exchange was concluded at the end of last week, in Istanbul, during the first direct discussions between Russia and Ukraine in more than three years. Despite the prisoners' agreement, the discussions in Turkey did not conclude with an agreement on a cessation of fire.
Moscow later said that any other discussions with Kiev could only take place after the exchange of prisoners, planned in a 1,000 Russian format for 1,000 Ukrainians.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski said chief negotiators from Ukraine and Russia called Monday to discuss this exchange.
Donald Trump, who declared during his election campaign that he would quickly end the Russian invasion in Ukraine, which began in 2022. The US Peace Proposal project was prepared after Trump's emissary Steve Witkoff flew to Moscow for rounds with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kiev and its European allies have developed an alternative proposal, which provided that there should first be a cessation of fire, so that the negotiations could start, and the postponement of any discussion about the territories at a time to be established later.
