Russia and Ukraine exchanged a total of 390 people including soldiers and civilians on Friday, May 23, in their biggest prisoner swap since the war began.
This swap was part of an agreement made during direct talks in Istanbul a week earlier.
In the exchange, which took place near Ukraine's border with Belarus, each country gave back 270 soldiers and 120 civilians.
"Both sides had agreed to an exchange of 1,000 prisoners and confirmed there would be further swaps in the coming days," reported BBC.
As per the Russian defence ministry, the released people are now in Belarus and Russia will bring them back for medical checkups and care.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on social media that "We are bringing our people home. We are verifying every surname, every detail about each person."
Trump announces Russia-Ukraine negotiations after phone call with Putin:
Earlier this week, Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that Russia and Ukraine "will immediately start negotiations" towards a ceasefire after a two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Afterwards, Putin said that the steps being taken to end war were mostly "on right track," as per Reuters.
He also said that Russia is willing to cooperate with Ukraine to try and create a possible peace agreement.
Meanwhile, after Trump's statement, Zelenskyy said that Putin is only pretending to want peace talks and is actually just trying to gain more time so he continue the war for longer.
