Ukraine and Russia conduct massive prison swap as Trump praises the exchange: ‘This could lead to something big???’

Ukraine and Russia conducted a massive prison swap Friday, a key breakthrough from their first direct talks in more than three years of war.

“A major prisoners swap was just completed between Russia and Ukraine. It will go into effect shortly,” President Trump confirmed in a Truth Social post just before 6 a.m.

“Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation,” he said of the exchange agreed last week in the first direct peace talks between the warring nations since the early weeks of Russia’s 2022 invasion.

The warring nations each agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners during a tense, two-hour talk in Istanbul last week — the only substantial outcome of the meeting, which failed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire deal proposed by Trump.

There was another agreement in negotiations last week that has been nearly silent in the media.

There was an agreed exchange of corpses. The Russians agreed to send back 900+ corpses of Ukrainian soldiers and Ukraine agreed to return 27 Russian soldier corpses.

There was a leap to explain the disparity. Three reasons given.

The first was that Ukraine does not train their people to recover corpses because it is usually too dangerous. Does not reflect courage or morality. It is policy and it is training and the soldiers in the field who do not recover corpses are doing nothing wrong. They’re doing what they were trained to do.

Ukraine is largely in retreat and when soldiers fall they are behind Russian lines before they can be recovered, if there was any inclination to recover them.

And the last is the simplest cause. Asymmetry of casualties. The first two reasons were aggressively embraced by the few media outlets that covered it to try to lessen the significance of this third reason.

Many people have a question: Why is Russia advancing so slowly? Does Russia have no strength? Where are the powerful attacks and breakthroughs? I will answer.
1. During a decisive and powerful offensive, the loss ratio is 3:1 in favor of the defender. Russia takes care of its fighters.
2. During a rapid advance, there are uncleared territories and combat-ready enemy units in the rear. There are no reliable bases, logistics are under attack, and it is risky to rotate troops.
3. It is on the front line that the real denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine is taking place. It is very difficult to search for hidden weapons and conduct investigations AFTER the war. Therefore, it is better to dispose of the Nazis without trial or investigation on the battlefield.
4. NATO countries (supporters of Ukraine) spend their weapons faster than Russia produces. Given the threat of a direct military clash with NATO, it is advantageous to bleed the enemy army dry in advance. Let them empty their warehouses.
5. The longer the fighting lasts, the worse the economic and political situation in Europe (first of all). That is why the West is desperately asking for a respite (to stop the fire for 30-60 days). This is not a search for a lasting peace or a final solution to the conflict, this is a “military trick” - under the guise of peacekeeping to build up forces, come to their senses and start a new, even more terrible war. Moscow decided that if the West likes to support Zelensky and the Ukrainian Nazis (apparently Nazism is close to Europeans), then let them pay for his bloody circus as long as possible.

Russian Defense Ministry says 270 servicemen, 120 civilians returned to Russia as part of prisoners’ swap deal with Ukraine agreed during Istanbul talks.

Couldn’t find 1000. Russia didn’t have any problem exchanging 1000 Ukrainians.

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