swap

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a new prisoner swap and the return of thousands of war dead during direct talks in Istanbul although little headway was made towards ending the war.

The delegations met on Monday at the Ottoman-era Ciragan Palace in the Turkish city, and officials confirmed that both sides will exchange prisoners of war and the remains of 6,000 soldiers killed in combat.

Negotiators from both sides confirmed they had reached a deal to swap all severely wounded soldiers as well as all captured fighters under the age of 25.

“We agreed to exchange all-for-all seriously wounded and seriously sick prisoners of war. The second category is young soldiers who are from 18 to 25 years old – all-for-all,” Ukraine’s lead negotiator and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov told reporters in Istanbul.

Russia’s lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said the swap would involve “at least 1,000” on each side – topping the 1,000-for-1,000 POW exchange agreed at talks last month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking from Vilnius, Lithuania, said the two parties “exchanged documents through the Turkish side” and Kyiv was preparing for the next group of captives to be released.

The Istanbul meeting marks the second direct dialogue in less than a month, but expectations were low. The talks on May 16 produced another major prisoner swap but failed to reach a ceasefire.

“The exchange of prisoners seems to be the diplomatic channel that actually works between Russia and Ukraine,” Al Jazeera correspondent Dmitry Medvedenko said, reporting from Istanbul.

“We’ve actually had exchanges of prisoners throughout this war, not in the numbers that have been happening as a result of these Istanbul talks,” Medvedenko added.

Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Kyiv also handed over a list of children it accuses Russia of abducting and demanded their return.

As for a truce, Russia and Ukraine remain sharply divided.

“The Russian side continued to reject the motion of an unconditional ceasefire,” Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters after the talks.

Russia said it had offered a limited pause in fighting.

“We have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas of the front line,” Medinsky said, adding that this was needed to collect the bodies of dead soldiers from battlefields.

At the negotiating table, Russia presented a memorandum setting out the Kremlin’s terms for ending hostilities, the Ukrainian delegation said.

Umerov told reporters that Kyiv officials would need a week to review the document and decide on a response. Ukraine proposed further talks on a date between June 20 and June 30, he said.

After the talks, Russian state news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti published the text of the Russian memorandum, which suggested as a condition for a ceasefire that Ukraine withdraw its forces from the four Ukrainian regions that Russia annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured.

As an alternate way of reaching a truce, the memorandum presses Ukraine to halt its mobilisation efforts and freeze Western arms deliveries, conditions that were suggested earlier by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The document also suggests that Ukraine stop any redeployment of forces and ban any military presence of third countries on its soil as conditions for halting hostilities.

The Russian document further proposes that Ukraine end martial law and hold elections, after which the two countries could sign a comprehensive peace treaty that would see Ukraine declare its neutral status, abandon its bid to join NATO, set limits on the size of its armed forces and recognise Russian as the country’s official language on par with Ukrainian.

Ukraine and the West have previously rejected all those demands from Moscow.

Ceasefire hopes remain elusive

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the talks “magnificent”.

“My greatest wish is to bring together Putin and Zelenskyy in Istanbul or Ankara and even add [United States President Donald] Trump along,” he said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who chaired the talks, said the world was watching closely. He acknowledged the two sides had discussed the conditions for a ceasefire but no tangible outcome was announced.

Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament, told Al Jazeera he was not very optimistic about the talks in Istanbul.

“Russia clearly shows that they don’t want to end the war because Ukraine proposed a 30-days ceasefire in March, and the American and Europe proposition was the same, but only one country [Russia] refused,” Goncharenko said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has ramped up its military efforts far beyond the front lines, claiming responsibility for drone attacks on Sunday that it said damaged or destroyed more than 40 Russian warplanes. The operation targeted airbases in three distant regions – the Arctic, Siberia and the Far East – thousands of kilometres from Ukraine.

“This brilliant operation will go down in history,” Zelenskyy said, calling the raids a turning point in Ukraine’s struggle.

Ukrainian officials said the attacks crippled nearly a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet. Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine, said the mission had taken more than a year to plan.

Zelenskyy said the setback for Russia’s military would increase pressure on Moscow to return to the negotiating table.

“Russia must feel the cost of its aggression. That is what will push it towards diplomacy,” he said during his visit to Lithuania, where he met leaders from NATO’s eastern flank and Nordic countries.

Ukraine’s air force, meanwhile, reported that Russia launched 472 drones on Sunday – the highest number since the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022 – aiming to exhaust Ukrainian air defences. Most of those drones targeted civilian areas, it said.

On Monday, Russian forces bombarded southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, killing three people and injuring 19, including two children. Separately, five people were killed and nine injured in attacks near Zaporizhzhia in the neighbouring Zaporizhia region.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces had intercepted 162 Ukrainian drones overnight across eight regions and Crimea while Ukraine said it shot down 52 of 80 drones launched by Russia.

Zelenskyy warned that if the Istanbul talks fail to deliver results, more sanctions against Russia will be necessary. “If there’s no breakthrough, then new, strong sanctions must follow – urgently,” he said.

Russia and Ukraine continued to launch air strikes overnight as they prepared to meet for a second round of direct peace talks in Turkiye.

The Ukrainian delegation arrived in Istanbul on Monday, despite recent rhetoric from Kyiv suggesting it may not take part in the follow-up to the first round of talks between the adversaries last month, at which little progress was made towards a ceasefire in the war, started by Russia as it invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

The Russian negotiators also announced they had arrived in the Turkish city, where Kyiv and Moscow – under pressure from the United States – are expected to present respective memorandums on peace terms.

The first round of talks ended with just a prisoner swap agreed, with Ukraine complaining that Russia continues to make unacceptable and unrealistic demands.

Russia has resisted pressure to send its memorandum to Kyiv in advance. However, presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, Moscow’s lead negotiator, was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying the Kremlin had received Ukraine’s proposal.

Kyiv, according to the Reuters news agency, has proposed a roadmap for lasting peace, with no restrictions on its military strength nor international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine, conditions that Moscow has sought to insist upon.

As the delegations arrived in Turkiye, Ukrainian officials were busy coordinating with European allies, who are seeking to raise support for Kyiv amid uncertainty over the commitment of the US under President Donald Trump.

Ahead of the meeting with their Russian counterparts, the Ukrainian delegation met with representatives from Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Around the same time, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius for a summit with the leaders of NATO’s eastern and Nordic members, who are some of Kyiv’s staunchest backers amid the Russian invasion.

“If Ukraine is not present at the NATO summit, it will be a victory for Putin, but not over Ukraine, but over NATO,” he said last week.

Zelensky wants the Western military alliance to offer security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire or peace deal, something Moscow has called “unacceptable.”

Zelenskyy had reiterated calls for a “full and unconditional ceasefire” before the talks.

“Second – the release of prisoners. Third – the return of abducted children,” he said in a post on social media.

Zelenskyy also called for a direct meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has previously said such a meeting could take place only after the delegations reach wider “agreements”.

Russia continues to demand that a ceasefire agreement must address the “root causes” of the conflict. It has persistently referred to limiting Ukraine’s military capabilities, banning Ukraine from joining NATO and agreeing to territorial concessions.

Massive bombardment

As the delegations arrived in Istanbul, both countries reported bombardments from massive overnight attacks.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday that its air defence units had “intercepted and destroyed” 162 Ukrainian drones, the majority of which were over the bordering regions, including 57 intercepted over the Kursk region and 31 over the Belgorod region.

A day earlier, Ukraine carried out one of its biggest and most successful attacks on Russian soil, hitting dozens of strategic bombers in Siberia and other military bases in the country.

Ukraine, meanwhile, reported that Russia had targeted its territory with 80 drones overnight, striking 12 targets.

The governor of Kherson, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on Telegram that artillery fire had killed a 40-year-old man in the Korabelny district.

A five-year-old child was also injured in the attack in Kherson and was undergoing medical supervision, he added.

May 25 (UPI) — The Ukrainian and Russian militaries exchanged massive air strikes overnight Saturday, even amid a planned swap of some 303 prisoners of war from each side.

The Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement that Russia’s bombardment began around 8:40 p.m. Saturday, during which Russia launched some 367 air attack weapons. It was the second night of such a large-scale attack by Russia.

Kyiv said it had shot down some 311 of them, including 45 cruise missiles and 266 drones. Still, some landed on Ukrainian territory.

“The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare and unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Defense Forces,” the Ukrainian Air Force said in its statement.

The Ukrainian Air Force said “most regions of Ukraine” were affected by Russia’s attack, with strikes recorded in at least 22 locations.

The scope of the attack prompted the Armed Forces Operational Command of neighboring Poland, a NATO alliance member, to scramble jets in case it needed to defend its airspace, Polish officials said in a statement.

When the strike ended, the Polish military said it had observed no violations of its airspace and that defense systems had returned to normal.

“Unfortunately, last night, due to the barbaric attack of the Russians, there are dead and wounded, including children,” the Ukrainian Air Force said. “We express our condolences to the families of the victims and the wounded.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed Sunday that it carried out a “massive strike” against “enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex” that it said make missile components, drones, explosives, rocket fuel and radios for the Ukrainian military.

“The strike objectives have been achieved,” the Russian Defense Ministry said. “All designated targets have been hit.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Sunday that the Russian strike was against “ordinary cities” and hit “ordinary residential buildings” in Ukraine.

“In Kyiv, dormitories of the university’s history department were hit. There were also strikes on enterprises. Tragically, people were killed, including children,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky called on world powers to levy new sanctions against Russia, which he said “is dragging out this war and continues to kill every day” as he criticized the “silence of America.”

“Without truly strong pressure on the Russian leadership, this brutality cannot be stopped. Sanctions will certainly help,” he said. “The war can be stopped, but only through the necessary force of pressure on Russia.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that it too had defended against a large-scale air attack by Ukraine on Russian territory Saturday night.

In total, Russia said it had intercepted and destroyed some 110 Ukrainian drones over the several Russian regions along the Ukraine-Russia border, including Moscow and the contested region of Crimea.

The Russian Defense Ministry later said that its troops are continuing to advance every day to push Ukrainian troops further from the Russia border to create a protection zone for Russia’s civilian population.

In another statement, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that 303 prisoners of war were returned from “territory controlled by the Kyiv regime” and that Russia handed over 303 Ukrainian soldiers in return.

The Russian soldiers are currently undergoing psychological and medical assistance in Belarus, an ally of Russia. They will then be taken back to Russia for further treatment and rehabilitation at Russian military hospitals.

In total, since Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement on May 16 in Istanbul, the two nations have swapped some 1,000 prisoners of war each.

“303 Ukrainian defenders are home. The third part of the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange deal, agreed upon in Turkey, has been completed,” Zelensky said in a statement.

“I thank the team that worked around the clock to successfully carry out this exchange. We will definitely bring every single one of our people back from Russian captivity.”

Russia and Ukraine have each handed over 390 soldiers and civilians in the biggest prisoner exchange since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

They both returned 270 servicemen and 120 civilians on the Ukrainian border with Belarus, as part of the only deal agreed in direct talks in Istanbul a week ago.

Both sides had agreed to an exchange of 1,000 prisoners and confirmed there would be further swaps in the coming days.

Although there have been dozens of smaller-scale exchanges, no other handover has involved as many civilians.

The Russian defence ministry said servicemen and civilians, including those captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region during Kyiv’s offensive in recent months, were among those handed over.

They were currently on Belarusian territory and were to be taken to Russia for medical checks and treatment, the ministry said.

“We are bringing our people home,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on social media.

“We are verifying every surname, every detail about each person.”

Ukraine’s co-ordination headquarters for prisoners of war said the 270 Ukrainian servicemen had fought in regions across the east and north, from Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy to Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson. Three of the 390 released on Friday were women, it added.

US President Donald Trump earlier posted his congratulations on his Truth Social platform, claiming that the swap was complete and that “this could lead to something big???”.

Families of Ukrainian soldiers held by Russia gathered in northern Ukraine on Friday in the hope that their sons and husbands would be among those released.

Natalia, whose son Yelizar was captured during the battle for the city of Severodonetsk three years ago, told the BBC she believed he would return, but did not know when.

The deal was agreed in Turkey a week ago, when low-level delegations from Ukraine and Russia came face to face for the first time since March 2022, even though the meeting lasted only two hours and failed to make any progress towards a ceasefire.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that there would be a second round of talks, when Moscow would hand a “memorandum” to the Ukrainian side.

Trump said earlier this week that Russia and Ukraine would “immediately” start negotiating towards a ceasefire and an end to the war, after a two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since then, Zelensky has accused Putin of “trying to buy time” to continue the war.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has backed a suggestion from Trump that the Vatican might mediate talks on negotiating a ceasefire, but Lavrov said that was “not a very realistic option”.

The Russian foreign minister repeated an unfounded claim that Zelensky was not a legitimate leader and suggested new elections should be held before a potential future peace agreement is signed.

Asked if Russia was ready to sign a deal, Lavrov said: “First we need to have a deal. And when it’s agreed, then we will decide. But, as President Putin has said many times, President Zelensky does not have legitimacy.”

He said after an agreement was ready, Russia would “see who out of those in power in Ukraine has legitimacy”.

“The key task now is to prepare a peace agreement which will be reliable and provide a long-term, stable and fair peace without creating security threats for anyone. In our case, we’re concerned with Russia.”

May 23 (UPI) — A prisoner swap is underway Friday between Ukraine and Russia, Ukrainian officials said.

The swap, involving 1,000 prisoners from each side, began on Friday and was not yet completed, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, The Kyiv Independent and CNN reported.

The process of exchanging the prisoners is expected to take several days, CNN reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump, however posted on his Truth Social account Friday that the swap had been completed.

“A major prisoners swap was just completed between Russia and Ukraine. It will go into effect shortly,” Trump said. “Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation. This could lead to something big?”

A source familiar with the matter, however, told The Kyiv Independent the swap was still ongoing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted to social media Thursday that the prisoner swap “was perhaps the only tangible result of the meeting in Turkey.”

“We are working to ensure that this result is achieved,” he wrote.

The two sides met last week in Istanbul and Zelensky continued that Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov is involved with the “organization of the process and the implementation of the agreement,” but several other prominent members of the Ukrainian government have also taken part in the process.

Zelensky also added that his team is “clarifying the details for each individual included on the lists submitted by the Russian side.

“Returning all of our people from Russian captivity is one of Ukraine’s key objectives,” he said.

He also posted Monday that “the most significant outcome of the meetings [in Turkey] was the agreement to conduct a prisoner exchange in a 1,000-for-1,000 format.”

Additionally, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War had announced on Telegram last week that Russia had returned the bodies of 909 Ukrainian soldiers.

Russia and Ukraine are expected to each swap 1,000 prisoners of war as part of deal reached at recent talks in Istanbul.

Russia has received a list of names of prisoners of war (POWs) that Ukraine wants freed as part of an expected exchange between the two countries, a Kremlin spokesperson told the Russian news agency Interfax.

Dmitry Peskov told Interfax on Thursday that the list had been received after Moscow gave Kyiv its own list of prisoners it wants released.

The exchange – which will see each side free 1,000 POWs in what would be the largest swap of the war – was agreed to during talks last week in the Turkish capital, Istanbul.

Those discussions marked the first direct peace negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations since 2022, the year the war began.

In advance of the meeting, Ukraine had called for a 30-day ceasefire, but Moscow rejected the proposal, agreeing only to the prisoner swap.

Ukrainian officials have since accused Russia of deliberately delaying peace talks while consolidating territorial gains on the battlefield.

The major prisoner swap is a “quite laborious process” that “requires some time”, said Peskov, adding that “the work is continuing at a quick pace.”

“Everybody is interested in doing it quickly,” the Kremlin spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that the deal “to release 1,000 of our people from Russian captivity was perhaps the only tangible result of the meeting in Turkiye”.

“We are working to ensure that this result is achieved,” he said in a post on X.

Zelenskyy added that Defence Minister Rustem Umerov is overseeing the exchange process, supported by several Ukrainian government ministries, intelligence agencies and the president’s own office.

“The return of all our people from Russian captivity is one of Ukraine’s key priorities,” Zelenskyy said. “I am grateful to everyone who is contributing to this effort.”

As Ukraine, the European Union, and the United States press Moscow to return to negotiations, Peskov dismissed reports about future peace talks taking place at the Vatican, saying, “There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings.”

US President Donald Trump spoke with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday and urged an end to the “bloodbath”.

Putin thanked Trump for supporting the resumption of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, and said his government “will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord”.

Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday that its air defences shot down 105 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 35 over the Moscow region.

The ministry said it downed 485 Ukrainian drones over several regions and the Black Sea between late Tuesday and early Thursday.

In southern Ukraine, Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin also said on Thursday that one person was killed in a Russian artillery attack on the region.

He said 35 areas in the Kherson region, including the city of Kherson, came under artillery shelling and air attacks over the past day, wounding 11 people.

Zelenskyy said the “most intense situation” remains in the Donetsk region, however, while Ukrainian forces continue “active operations in the Kursk and Belgorod regions” inside Russia.

Ukraine and Russia agreed to a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner swap — the war’s largest — during their first direct peace talks in three years, in Istanbul. Kyiv is now pushing for a Zelensky-Putin summit and a clear ceasefire plan.

A TOP British jockey has been tipped for a spot on Strictly Come Dancing.

The female sports star, 35, retired just this week – and speculation is mounting that BBC bosses will “make a move.”

6

6

6

Now Rachael Blackmore has been tipped with odds of 4/1 by bookies Ladbrokes to compete for the Glitterball Trophy.

On Monday, the Grand National-winning rider announced on her social media that she was bringing her glittering 16-year career to an end.

She became the first female jockey to win the Grand National in 2021 when riding Minella Times home at Aintree for long-time boss Henry De Bromhead.

The Irish sports star became the first female to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard in 2022, one of 18 winners at the Cheltenham Festival.

Now Alex Apati of Ladbrokes has told us: “She’s used to silks, but not with sequins…

“We’d be amazed if Strictly chiefs didn’t make a move for one of racing’s greatest later this year.”

Rachael became the first female to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup on A Plus Tard in 2022, one of 18 winners at the Cheltenham Festival.

On Monday, she released an emotional statement on her retirement.

In it, she said: “My days of being a jockey have come to an end.

“I feel the time is right. I’m sad but I’m also incredibly grateful for what my life has been for the past 16 years.

“I just feel so lucky, to have been legged up on the horses I have, and to have experienced success I never even dreamt could be possible.

“It is daunting, not being able to say that I am a jockey anymore… who even am I now! But I feel so incredibly lucky to have had the career I’ve had.

“To have been in the right place at the right time with the right people, and to have gotten on the right horses – because it doesn’t matter how good you are without them.

“They have given me the best days of my life and to them I am most grateful.”

All your Strictly Come Dancing winners

Strictly first kicked off back in 2004, and over the years has crowned 21 winners.

Rachael would follow in the footsteps of fellow jockey Richard Dunwoody if she scooped the Strictly gig, after his stint in sequins in 2009.

He previously told how he earned £9K in nine minutes when winning the Grand National – yet bagged a bigger pay cheque on the BBC One series.

Recently, The Sun reported how the Queen Camilla Parker Bowles’ son, Tom, is said to be in talks to compete on the BBC dancing competition.

Tom, 50, is a food writer and restaurant critic and has made regular appearances on MasterChef as a judge.

A source said: “Top of their wishlist is MasterChef star Tom. His name was also sounded-out last year but never materialised. Bosses hope they’ll have better luck this year.

“It would be a coup to sign someone with such a strong royal link. Maybe we could see Camilla and Charles in the audience?”

Made In Chelsea star and I’m A Celebrity winner Georgia ‘Toff’ Toffolo is also on the dance show’s radar.

6

6

6