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It follows a phone call between Donald Trump and European leaders in which the US president reportedly said Vladimir Putin wasn’t ready to end the war
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Donald Trump has claimed that a major prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia that got underway today could “lead to something big”.
The US president announced the swap of 2,000 prisoners of war on social media. He incorrectly claimed the exchange, which was agreed between Ukraine and Russia last week during talks in Istanbul, had already been completed.
Ukrainian officials have since clarified that the first group of POWs will be swapped later today but the whole exchange will take place over three days. It is, they added, far from being completed. Previous exchanges have also been derailed before completion.
The Trump administration helped broker the talks between Ukraine and Russia in Turkey, the first of their kind since negotiations, which were also held in Turkey, broke down in March 2022.
The agreement to exchange 1,000 POWs each was the only outcome of the latest talks that were initially sold by Trump as a way to end the war.
There has been no developments between the two sides since those talks, suggesting they are no closer to agreeing a truce. It is unclear if there is any weight behind Trump’s suggestion that the POW swap could materialise into something more substantial.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz asked Chinese president Xi Jinping for support in achieving a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, Merz’s spokesperson said after the two leaders held a call on Friday.
“The federal chancellor reported on the joint efforts of Europe and the US to achieve an early ceasefire. He called for support for these efforts,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Top finance officials from the world’s seven wealthiest democracies set aside stark differences on U.S. tariffs and agreed to counter global “economic imbalances,” a swipe at China‘s trade practices.
In a communiqué issued Thursday, the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors, meeting in the Canadian Rockies, left out their traditional defense of free trade and toned down their references to Russia‘s war in Ukraine compared with last year. But they did agree that further sanctions on Russia could be imposed if the two countries don’t reach a ceasefire.
It is being reported that the first day in a three-day exchange of prisoners of war is underway between Ukraine and Russia.
US president Donald Trump jumped the gun when he posted on social media earlier today that the swap of 2,000 POWs was completed. Ukrainian officials have since said the swap is far from being done. Previous swaps have been derailed after getting underway.
According to The Times, the exchange is expected to take place at about 2pm local time, with captured soldiers and a few civilians expected to cross the Belarusian border to a location near the Ukrainian town of Chernihiv.
Russia’s top diplomat has claimed peace talks with Ukraine cannot be held in – and mediated by – the Vatican because of religious differences.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told a conference in Moscow that the Vatican would “not be quite comfortable” to host the talks between the two Orthodox Christian states.
“It is not quite elegant for Orthodox states to discuss issues related to the eradication of root causes [of the conflict] at a Catholic venue,” Lavrov said.
He repeated propagandistic claims that Ukraine is attempting to eliminate the Orthodox Church, adding that the Vatican “would not be quite comfortable to host delegations from two Orthodox countries under such circumstances”.
Last summer, Ukraine banned the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) after accusing them of spreading pro-Russian propaganda in time of war and of housing spies, charges it denies.
The popularity of the UOC, which is closely associated with the Russian Orthodox Church, the head of which described Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a “Holy War”, has been waning in Ukraine as a result of Russian aggression.
Earlier, we reported that US president Donald Trump claimed that a major prisoner of war swap between Ukraine and Russia had just taken place.
It is highly unusual for an official outside of the Ukraine and Russia to announce such a swap, though the agreement to exchange 2,000 POWs was made during talks in Istanbul last week partly brokered by the Trump administration.
The Financial Times, citing officials, is now reporting that the swap, as agreed in Turkey, will take place in three stages across three days. It appears the first stage of the swap has begun.
Soldiers have been pictured undergoing training in southeast Ukraine.
The recruits are passing military training for the 65th Separate Mechanised Brigade.
Ukraine has struggled to recruit enough soldiers to continue to defend against Russia’s invading forces.
While Moscow is recruiting roughly 30,000 soldiers a month, according to European intelligence estimates, Ukrainian officials told The Economist earlier this year that they are aiming to employ an additional 4,000 soldiers each month.
High Russian casualties lessen the significance of this disparity but Ukraine’s manpower shortages remain one of the country’s most pressing problems.
US president Donald Trump said on Friday that a major prisoner swap was just completed between Russia and Ukraine.
“A major prisoners swap was just completed between Russia and Ukraine. It will go into effect shortly. Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation,” he wrote on social media.
“This could lead to something big???”
Neither Ukraine nor Russia confirmed that a swap had taken place, though both sides said they had agreed lists of POWs to swap yesterday.
Below you can see the latest map of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The map has been provided by the British Ministry of Defence, who has been publishing regular intelligence updates on the state of the war on Ukraine.
Let’s take you away from the war in Ukraine for a moment to bring you news from Afghanistan.
The Taliban administration has told Reuters that they are in advanced talks with Russia for banks from both sanctions-hit economies to settle trade transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars in their local currencies.
Afghanistan’s acting commerce minister, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, said the proposal with Russia was being worked on by technical teams from the two countries.
The move comes as Moscow focuses on using national currencies to shift reliance away from the dollar and as Afghanistan faces a stark drop in the US currency entering the country due to aid cuts. Both countries have been hit hard by sanctions.
“We are currently engaged in specialised discussions on this matter, considering the regional and global economic perspectives, sanctions, and the challenges Afghanistan is currently facing, as well as those Russia is dealing with. Technical discussions are underway,” Azizi said in an interview at his office in Kabul.
The Afghan government has made similar proposals to China, the minister said, and discussions have been held with the Chinese embassy in Kabul.
A suburb of Ukraine’s capital has been hit by a Russian drone attack, damaging several homes.
Ukraine’s state emergency services posted photos showing the destruction in the Obukhiv district south of Kyiv.
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