DONALD Trump has hailed the start of the largest prisoner swap to take place during Vladimir Putin’s brutal three-year-old invasion of Ukraine.
Approximately 1,000 detained soldiers and civilians are expected to be released by both sides in the coming days, with the exchange process having started around midday on Friday, based on UK time.
Trump responded to the news on TruthSocial saying “a major prisoners swap was just completed between Russia and Ukraine.
“It will go into effect shortly. Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation. This could lead to something big???”
Scenes of crying and skinny Ukrainian soldiers being returned home after imprisonment have been seen before.
Swaps have gone ahead throughout the war, with each side releasing footage of bitter-sweet reunions.
But Trump hopes the latest swap could be the first step in a peace deal, after talks fell apart in Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The President revealed he wanted to restart talks during a crunch call with Vladimir Putin and wants the Pope to hold them in the Vatican.
The prisoner swap was agreed at talks in Istanbul – but the two sides were not able to agree on a ceasefire or a wider peace agreement.
But the chance of peace remains low as Russia continues its brutal invasion and Putin won’t compromise on his goals.
Neither Ukraine or Russia have said much about the exchange which began near in the northern town of Chernihiv.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov only said: “Everyone is interested in doing this as quickly as possible.”
The warring countries have held regular exchanges since Russia launched its 2022 invasion – but none have been of this scale.
The most famous of these was the August 2024 prisoner swap that included the brave Wall St Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
After 39 months of fighting, thousands of POWs are held in both countries.
Russia is believed to have the larger share, with the number of Ukrainian captives held by Moscow estimated to be between 8,000 and 10,000.
Last month, Artur Dobroserdov, Kiev’s Commissioner for Missing Persons, informed Ukrainian outlets: “Over 60,000 individuals are unaccounted for. Of those, about 10,000 are confirmed to be held captive.”
With Kyiv not knowing the fate of thousands, each exchange bring surprises.
Dobroserdov said: “Almost every exchange includes people no one had knowledge about.
“Sometimes they return people who were on the lists of missing persons or were considered dead.”
The number of Russian POWs in Ukraine is believed to be considerably smaller.
Throughout the conflict, Zelensky has advocated for capturing Russian soldiers to bolster what he refers to as Kyiv’s “exchange fund” for subsequent prisoner swaps.
Ukraine took hundreds of Russian troops captive during Kyiv’s incursion into the Kursk region in 2024.
The US President and Russia’s leader spoke earlier this week for more than two hours in a chat Putin described as “frank and very useful” for agreeing to a wider peace deal.
After the call Mad Vlad told state media: “A ceasefire in Ukraine for a certain period of time is possible if appropriate agreements are reached.”
Just hours later, a vile Vlad continued his bloody attacking of Ukraine as Russia dropped a giant ODAB-1500 aerial bomb on the historic city of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region.
It was later revealed that Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke with Trump by phone before the Putin call for “a few minutes”.
The talk came after Zelensky had personally gone to Turkey to meet Putin for peace talks – with the Russian dictator not showing up, despite making the suggestion they should go ahead.
