Russia and Ukraine released 390 prisoners respectively on Friday and said more will be released in the coming days, the biggest prisoner exchange in the war so far.
The agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners from two-hour talks from Istanbul was the only concrete step towards peace, the first direct dialogue on war in more than three years.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday, both sides released 270 soldiers and 120 civilians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed a total of 390 people and said more will be released on Saturday and Sunday.
Earlier, Ukrainian authorities told reporters gathered at a location in the northern region of Chenishev, hoping that some released prisoners could be taken there.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides were believed to have been wounded or killed in Europe's deadliest war since World War II, although neither side published accurate casualties. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians also died as Russian troops were besieged and bombed Ukrainian cities.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the release included civilians arrested in the Kursk region of Russia during the Ukrainian invasion last year.
It said the freed Russian soldiers and civilians were in Belarus, a neighboring Ukraine, and received psychological and medical assistance before moving to Russia for further care.
Deadly Attack in Odesa
Although U.S. President Donald Trump said he was losing patience with both countries as the United States seeks the end of the war, in general, he turned U.S. policy away from supporting Ukraine's military and humanitarian aid to embrace some of Russia's narratives about the war.
Trump said he could tighten sanctions on Moscow if the peace was blocked, but after Putin spoke with Putin on Monday, even though the EU issued the 17th sanctions package against Russia, he did not take immediate action.
“Congratulations on the negotiations between the two sides. Could this lead to something big??” Trump wrote in The Society of Truth, when he mentioned the prisoner exchange earlier Friday.
Moscow said it was ready when the battle continued and wanted to discuss what it called the “root cause” of the war, including Ukraine's demand for more territory and being disarmed and banned from military alliances with the West. Kiev said it was almost a surrender, and it would leave it defenseless in the face of future Russian attacks.
Meanwhile, the battle continues.
Half of the iconic Canadian comedian Dave Thomas, most famous Bob and Doug McKenzie, has spent some time in Ukraine recently and was surprised by the life of normal life – with a quiet sense of resistance. McKenzie talked to National Ian Hanomans about his experience there and why he always valued a Canadian passport.
Russia, which accounts for about one-fifth of Ukraine, claims to have occupied a solution called Rakivka in the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine on Friday.
Ukraine's ODESA region governor Oleh Kiper said Russia attacked the port infrastructure with two missiles on Friday afternoon, killing one person and injuring eight people.
