A major prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine has begun.

 

Russia and Ukraine began the first phase of a "major" prisoner swap on Friday, involving 270 military personnel and 120 civilians, announced earlier by US President Donald Trump.

The Russians and Ukrainians agreed on May 16 to exchange 1,000 prisoners from each side during talks in Istanbul, the first direct talks between them since 2022, but without reaching a truce.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explained on Friday that Moscow is working on a document outlining "the terms of a sustainable, comprehensive, and long-term agreement on the settlement" of the conflict, to be delivered to Ukraine after the prisoner swap is completed.

Kyiv will follow Moscow's lead and propose its own terms.

The two sides announced on Friday that they had exchanged 390 people from each side, in the "first phase of the 1,000-for-1,000+ exchange agreement," according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The exchange is scheduled to continue Saturday and Sunday.

Zelenskyy said, "It is important to recover all prisoners."

The Russian Defense Ministry said via Telegram, "270 Russian servicemen and 120 civilians, including civilians from the Kursk region captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, have returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime. In return, 270 prisoners of war from the Ukrainian Armed Forces and 120 civilians were handed over."

Ukraine has recovered the same number of military personnel and civilians, including soldiers from the Navy, Airborne Forces, Ground Forces, National Guard, and Border Guard, according to authorities.

Earlier Friday, President Donald Trump announced a "major" prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia, congratulating both countries.

"Congratulations to both sides on these negotiations," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "Does this lead to anything significant?"

The two countries are holding thousands of prisoners of war as a result of the ongoing fighting for more than three years, but their exact number is unknown.

Ukraine's commissioner for missing persons, Artur Dobroserdov, said last April, "We have confirmation that Russia has approximately 10,000 prisoners."

A senior Ukrainian official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Russia provides very little information about the fate of Ukrainian prisoners and that every exchange brings surprises.

"In almost every exchange, there are people about whom no one knows anything. Sometimes they return to us people who are listed as missing or presumed dead," he added.

Kyiv and Moscow trade accusations of violating the Geneva Convention, which sets out the rules for the treatment of prisoners of war.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office on Friday accused the Russian army of executing approximately 270 prisoners of war since the start of its invasion in February 2022, asserting that this was the result of "directions" from senior officials.

Amnesty International, in a report published in March, denounced the "systematic torture and denial of medical care" of Ukrainian prisoners in Russia.

Several former Ukrainian prisoners of war confirmed to AFP that they were tortured during their detention.

Russia recently returned the body of Ukrainian journalist Viktorija Roshchina, who died in custody.

A journalistic investigation confirmed that she had been tortured, noting that some of her body parts were missing.

On the ground, two people were killed in Russian strikes targeting the port of Odessa in southern Ukraine, while three others were killed in the Kherson region (south).

For its part, the Russian army reported that Kyiv had targeted Russian territory with 788 drones and missiles since Tuesday, noting that 776 of them had been shot down.