Russia and Ukraine have agreed to the largest prisoner of war swap since the start of the war, The Associated Press reported Friday.
The two warring nations agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners each during the first direct peace talks since the war began in 2022 in Turkey, Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky said, according to the AP. Additionally, delegations for each side have agreed to draft detailed ceasefire proposals for future negotiations.
However, the talks reportedly only lasted two hours after the Ukrainian representatives accused Russia of making “unacceptable demands” to withdraw Ukrainian forces from key areas of the front, anonymous sources told the AP.
Good meeting, together with @AndriyYermak and @rustem_umerov, with U.S. Secretary of State @SecRubio and @SPE_Kellogg @generalkellogg, Türkiye’s Foreign Minister @HakanFidan, National Intelligence Organization head Ibrahim Kalin.
Coordinated positions on this important… pic.twitter.com/11l5bifMtk
— Andrii Sybiha
(@andrii_sybiha) May 16, 2025
The war has raged for three years, taking hundreds of thousands lives on both sides while the front lines have remained largely static since the initial Russian invasion in 2022. President Donald Trump has made it a priority of his second term’s foreign policy to pursue peace in the region.
The Ukrainian Embassy and the Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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