June 2, 2025 | Istanbul, Turkey— Ukraine and Russia have agreed to another large-scale prisoner exchange during direct talks in Istanbul on Monday, yet they failed to secure a ceasefire to halt ongoing hostilities.
In the second round of face-to-face negotiations since Russia’s invasion, Kyiv reported that Moscow rejected a call for an unconditional ceasefire, offering only a limited truce of two to three days in select frontline areas.
Ukraine’s lead negotiator and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov confirmed the agreement to exchange all severely wounded and sick prisoners of war, along with all captured fighters aged 18 to 25. Russia’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky estimated that at least 1,000 prisoners would be swapped on each side—surpassing the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange agreed upon last month.
Despite this progress on prisoner swaps, efforts to secure a ceasefire stalled. Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya said Moscow continued to reject an unconditional halt in fighting, while Russia proposed a limited pause to retrieve fallen soldiers from the battlefield.
The two sides also agreed to exchange the bodies of approximately 6,000 soldiers killed in the conflict. Moscow pledged to hand over Ukrainian bodies unilaterally but did not disclose Russian casualties.
President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that any peace deal must not reward Russian President Vladimir Putin for the war, stating, “The key to lasting peace is clear, the aggressor must not receive any reward for war.”
Turkey hosted the talks at Istanbul’s Ciragan Palace, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposing a future summit involving Zelensky, Putin, and former U.S. President Donald Trump to advance peace efforts.
The conflict, now over three years long, has led to tens of thousands of deaths and Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, with Ukraine seeking firm Western-backed security guarantees despite Russian opposition.
