Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war in peace talks held in Istanbul on Friday, which would be the largest prisoner exchange in the conflict.
The negotiations lasted less than two hours and were mediated by Türkiye, marking the first time that countries have participated in peace negotiations since the beginning of the war.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who led the country's delegation, introduced reporters to the agreement reached after the meeting, adding that the two sides also discussed the possibility of a ceasefire and the meeting between the president. Vladimir Medinsky, presidential aide to the Russian delegation, also confirmed to the Russian state media that the two sides had agreed to the prisoner exchange.
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Until Friday's speech, both countries had a lot of manipulation to prove to U.S. President Donald Trump that they are willing to negotiate directly. Trump strives to end the war.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a proposal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a face-to-face meeting to Türkiye. Zelensky arrived in Ankara, Türkiye's capital on Thursday. But the Russian delegation did not come to Türkiye.
In response, Zelensky accused Russia of sending a "fake" delegation, sent by low-level officials, rather than earnest efforts to end the war. Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, is a former cultural minister with no background in military or intelligence, and rarely sways in Putin's inner circle.
The United States and Europe previously proposed a 30-day ceasefire, and Ukraine accepted it. But Putin refused to accept the ceasefire proposal unless his long list of demands were met.
Although Trump supported peace talks earlier this week, he said Thursday that nothing important would happen until he met Putin. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously reiterated Trump's comments, who made an appearance in Istanbul on Friday. U.S. officials spoke with delegations from Ukraine and Russia respectively, and Rubio did not participate in direct peace talks.
For Zelensky, prisoner exchanges like those agreed in Istanbul are sometimes a means of building trust with the Russians and measuring their intentions. When he took office in 2019, Ukraine had been warring Russia for five years, as it worked hard to find a solution with Putin that settlement could prevent a wider war.
During the first call in the spring of that year, the two presidents agreed to conduct a prisoner exchange. "As you can see, we can not only talk, but also have results," Zelensky said after meeting with the prisoners at Kiev Airport. Even after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the swaps did not stop. Indeed, a consistent diplomatic channel in terms of war is a channel dedicated to prisoner communication.
"The president sets the goal of returning to everyone as soon as possible," said his chief of staff Andriy Yermak.
He told the time that they could be painful, as negotiators argued about the name list and the relative value of prisoners. The final approval from Russia often continues until Putin, who can decide to cancel the exchanges after months of negotiations. "These swaps are always on the edge," Yelmak said. "Always hanging with lines."
Even so, Putin showed his willingness to bring his most precious prisoners to Ukraine. In the spring of 2022, Russian troops trapped a large number of Ukrainians in a giant steel plant called Azovstal in southern Ukraine. Despite the use of food, drinking water, ammunition and other supplies, the defenders of the factory were still trapped under the siege for more than a month. After the final surrender, the Russians said they took hostages of more than 2,000 Ukrainians in Azovstal.
Many of them were systematically beaten and tortured in Russian prison camps, according to human rights groups and medical experts. More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in a bombing in Olenivka's infamous camp in July 2022, adding to the urgency of Ukraine's efforts to bring the rest of their personnel home. Russian officials promised a trial of the commanders captured in Azovstal, and President Zelensky feared they would be executed.
However, through military and diplomatic defenders, the two sides continued to negotiate the release. In September 2022, the Kremlin agreed to release all top commanders from Azovstal, which became the largest swap of the war to date. It involved 215 prisoners held by Russia in exchange for 55 prisoners held in Ukraine.
As agreed in Istanbul this week, the terms of the latest exchange will make it the biggest war to date. But there is no guarantee that it will advance a wider peace process. The past exchanges have been conducted in some past periods of combat, when both sides viewed them as practical necessities rather than goodwill postures on the road to peace. For example, communications were conducted to release commander Azistahl in a counterattack in Ukraine, forcing the Russians to retreat from the northeastern region of Kharkif in September 2022. Shortly after the prisoner exchange, Putin announced plans to mobilize about 300,000 troops, clearly showing his intention to continue the war.