Russia and Ukraine agree new prisoner exchange after talks – DW – 06/02/2025
06/02/2025
June 2, 2025 Zelenskyy says Ukraine, Russia preparing new POW exchange after Istanbul talks
The second round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul ended after lasting just over an hour.
"It didn't end negatively," said Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keseli.
Following the conclusion of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine and Russia are working on a new prisoner exchange.
The delegations "exchanged documents through the Turkish side, and we are preparing a new release of prisoners of the war," Zelenskyy said while attending a meeting of Central and Northern European states in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Meanwhile, Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, said that Ukrainian delegates at the Istanbul peace talks handed a list of children that Kyiv wants Moscow to return to Russian negotiators.
According to Ukrainian officials, hundreds of children were forcibly removed from Ukrainian territory by Russian forces, and Ukraine wants them returned as part of a peace deal. Moscow claims the children were relocated for their safety.
Expectations were low before the talks began, as both parties submitted written proposals laying out their demands, showing them far apart from any agreement on ending the war.
Ukraine, which has been defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion for more than three years, wants an internationally monitored 30-day ceasefire as a starting point for peace talks.
The solution is based on a US proposal.
Moscow, for its part, has set out preconditions that include halting mobilization and renouncing Western arms deliveries, aiming to stop Ukraine from using any ceasefire to regroup militarily.
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