JAKARTA - Russia and Ukraine began a massive prisoner/aware exchange on Friday which was approved at their first direct talks.
US President Donald Trump said the prisoner swap had been completed but Kyiv and Moscow did not confirm this. Meanwhile, Ukrainian military sources said the exchange was still ongoing.
Russia and Ukraine agreed in a two-hour negotiations in Istanbul last week to swap 1.000 prisoners, but failed to agree to Trump's proposed ceasefire.
Prisoner exchanges have previously been mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
Prisoner exchanges are the only concrete move towards peace approved by both sides in their talks in Istanbul.
"Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation. Can this lead to something big???," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides are believed to have been injured or killed in the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two, although no party has published accurate casualties.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians were also killed as Russian troops surrounded and bombarded Ukrainian cities.
Ukraine said it was ready for a ceasefire in 30 days, but Russia said it would not stop its attacks until its terms were met first.
A member of the Ukrainian delegation called the terms "cannot be started".
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Trump, who has changed US policies from supporting Ukraine to accepting some Russian statements about the war, said he could tighten sanctions against Russia if Moscow blocked a peace agreement. But after speaking with Putin on Monday, he decided not to take any action for now.
Moscow says it is ready for peace negotiations while fighting is still ongoing.
Russia wants to discuss what it calls the "root of the cause" of the war, including its demands that Ukraine surrender more territory, and be stripped of its weapons and barred from the military alliance with the West.
Kyiv said it was tantamount to giving up and would make him helpless in facing Russian attacks in the future.
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