Ukraine, Russia to conduct third stage of prisoner swap on May 25, Zelenskyy confirms

Ukraine and Russia plan to hold the third stage of the prisoner exchange on May 25, as announced by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“Tomorrow [May 25] is the third stage. We are to free a thousand of our people these days. But the task is to bring home absolutely everyone who is currently held in Russia. And this is a joint task for our intelligence services, for our diplomats, for our entire state,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on May 24, per Caliber.Az.

“Clearly, it’s not an easy task, but it must be accomplished. I’m grateful to everyone around the world who is helping us. And it’s truly very important for us that our partners – every leader, every state – support us in this difficult work.”

To recall, on May 24, Russia and Ukraine carried out a second large-scale prisoner exchange, each side returning 307 military personnel, as part of an ongoing process agreed during recent negotiations in Istanbul.

The reciprocal release was part of the framework laid out during the May 16 meeting in Istanbul —  the first direct dialogue between Moscow and Kyiv since shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Istanbul talks yielded only one concrete outcome: an agreement by both parties to release a total of 1,000 prisoners each.

On May 23, the first exchange under this agreement took place, with Russia and Ukraine trading 270 military personnel and 120 civilians.

In total, over these two days of exchanges, 697 Ukrainians have returned home.

By Khagan Isayev