Russia and Ukraine had been set to participate in a serious prisoner swap on Friday, described as the most important for the reason that begin of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.
Officers from each nations agreed to change 1,000 prisoners of conflict every, throughout in any other case fruitless peace negotiations in Istanbul per week in the past.
US President Donald Trump earlier posted his congratulations on his Fact Social platform, claiming that the swap was full and that “this might result in one thing large???”.
Nonetheless, there was no affirmation from both facet, and Ukrainian army sources informed information businesses solely that the method was below approach.
Unconfirmed experiences urged that the change might happen over three days throughout the Ukrainian border with Belarus.
The swap was agreed in Turkey per week in the past, when low-level delegations from Ukraine and Russia got here nose to nose for the primary time since March 2022, despite the fact that the assembly lasted solely two hours and did not make any progress in direction of a ceasefire.
Russian International Minister Sergei Lavrov stated on Friday that there could be a second spherical of talks, when Moscow would hand a “memorandum” to the Ukrainian facet.
Trump stated earlier this week that Russia and Ukraine would “instantly” begin negotiating in direction of a ceasefire and an finish to the conflict, after a two-hour telephone name with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Since then, Putin’s Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky has accused him of “trying to buy time” to proceed the conflict.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has backed a suggestion from Trump that the Vatican would possibly mediate talks on negotiating a ceasefire, however Lavrov stated that was “not a really sensible possibility”.
The Russian international minister repeated an unfounded declare that Zelensky was not a official chief and urged new elections ought to be held earlier than a possible future peace settlement is signed.
Requested if Russia was able to signal a deal, Lavrov stated: “First we have to have a deal. And when it is agreed, then we are going to determine. However, as President Putin has stated many instances, President Zelensky doesn’t have legitimacy.”
He stated after an settlement was prepared, Russia would “see who out of these in energy in Ukraine has legitimacy”.
“The important thing activity now’s to arrange a peace settlement which might be dependable and supply a long-term, steady and truthful peace with out creating safety threats for anybody. In our case, we’re involved with Russia.”
