Russia and Ukraine conduct largest prisoner swap since war began

Russia and Ukraine announced on Saturday that they had carried out one of the largest prisoner swaps since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion over three years ago.

According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, 246 Russian soldiers were brought back from Ukrainian-controlled territory. In return, 31 wounded Ukrainian prisoners of war were exchanged for 15 injured Russian troops requiring immediate medical attention, described by Moscow as a “gesture of goodwill.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that 277 Ukrainian “warriors” had been freed from Russian captivity.

Russia’s military chief of staff Valery Gerasimov said Saturday that troops had retaken over 99 percent of territory seized by Ukraine in the Kursk region in an incursion launched in August.

“In the areas of the Kursk region where Ukraine armed force mounted an incursion, the main part of the territory… is now liberated. That’s 1,260 square kilometres, 99.5 percent,” Gerasimov told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.

Earlier today, Putin announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, citing humanitarian reasons. The announcement came on the same day as Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces pushed Ukrainian troops from one of their last remaining footholds in Russia’s Kursk region where the Ukrainians staged a surprise incursion last year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the ceasefire “another attempt by Putin to play with human lives." He wrote on X that “air raid alerts are spreading across Ukraine,” and “Shahed drones in our skies reveal Putin’s true attitude toward Easter and toward human life.”

Putin’s announcement came after U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are “coming to a head” and insisted that neither side is “playing” him in his push to end the grinding three-year war.

With inputs from agencies