Key Points – A Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange, one of the few agreements from the failed Istanbul peace talks, began this week with soldiers returning home, some after being held captive since 2022.
-However, the process is mired in dispute. Russia’s lead negotiator claimed Ukraine failed to show up to retrieve over 1,200 bodies of its fallen soldiers, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged for the “full implementation” of the humanitarian agreements, implying Russian non-compliance.
-This limited humanitarian progress occurs as broader peace efforts have collapsed and military attacks from both sides, including last week’s “Operation Spiderweb,” continue to escalate.
Even a POW Swap is Fraught: Russia & Ukraine Trade Accusations
The recent peace talks between Russia and Ukraine did not lead to any advances in achieving a ceasefire or ending the more than three-year war. But they did lead to the sides agreeing to exchange prisoners of war, as well as the remains of war dead.
One of those exchanges took place earlier this week.
According to Reuters, reporting from Moscow, a further exchange took place on Tuesday. It followed a swap on Monday, which had involved an exchange of prisoners under the age of 25. The Russian government had told Reuters that the newly freed Russian prisoners were in Belarus.
“Russia has said it is ready to hand over the bodies of more than 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers and receive any bodies of Russian soldiers which Kyiv is able to return,” the Reuters story said. “But Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said on Saturday that the Russian side had shown up at the agreed exchange point with the bodies of 1,212 Ukrainian dead soldiers only to find nobody from Ukraine to take them.”
The Ukrainian Side of the Exchange
CNN, meanwhile, reported on the prisoners who returned home on the Ukrainian side, as part of the exchange. Most of those returned to Ukraine had been in captivity since around the beginning of the war in 2022.
“Our people are home,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram, as reported by CNN. “Ukrainians are returning home from Russian captivity. The exchange began today and will continue in several stages over the next few days.”
Among those released were Ukrainian soldiers who defended the city of Mariupol in the early part of the war, which was chronicled in the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Days in Mariupol.
There were, once again, disagreements between the two sides over what exactly had been agreed to in the Istanbul talks, and whether those agreements had been adhered to.
“We count on the full implementation of the humanitarian agreements reached during the meeting in Istanbul. We are doing everything possible to bring back every single person. We are working toward this at every level,” Zelenskyy said in his Telegram messages.
Will There Be More Talks?
Ever since the peace talks in Istanbul, the war has escalated in multiple ways, with Ukraine launching a daring drone assault across Russia, and Russia retaliating with a series of drone attacks of their own, which have struck Ukrainian cities.
Last week, President Donald Trump, who has indicated that he was losing patience with the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, posted to Truth Social about a long phone call he had with Russian President Putin, although he acknowledged that it was “not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”
“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump said in the post.
The post, ABC News said, was deleted but reposted shortly afterward.
The Istanbul talks only lasted for about an hour, when the Russian side reportedly offered maximalist demands that demanded Ukraine give up land, demilitarize, and commit to neutrality, all of which have been deemed nonstarters by the Ukrainian side.
Meanwhile, there has been little indication that any more talks between the sides will take place anytime soon, whether in Istanbul again, or under the auspices of the United States or the Vatican.
“U.S.-led efforts to push the two sides into accepting a ceasefire have so far failed. Ukraine accepted the proposed truce, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it. Recent comments by senior officials in both countries indicate they remain far apart on the key conditions for stopping the war,” according to a PBS analysis published shortly after the talks.
About the Author:
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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