Ukraine and Russia agree to three-day ceasefire, including prisoner exchange
Russia and Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire from May 9th to 11th. Both countries have previously accused each other of violating these agreements.
MOSCOW/WASHINGTON – Russia and Ukraine confirmed on May 8 that they had agreed to a three-day ceasefire brokered by the United States, from May 9 to May 11, and President Donald Trump said he wanted the ceasefire to be extended.
On the same day, President Trump announced a temporary ceasefire on Truth Social and said the countries, which have been at war for more than four years, would exchange 1,000 prisoners of war.
“I hope for a significant extension,” President Trump told reporters Friday night. “Maybe so.”
Both Kiev and Russia have accused the other of violating an armistice agreement declared separately this week, as Russia prepares to hold a Victory Day parade on May 9 to commemorate the 1945 victory over the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany.
The cessation of hostilities is a bit of good news for the U.S. president, who has grown frustrated with the lack of progress in ending the Ukraine-Russia war, and whose domestic approval rating has declined over Israel’s war with Iran. The Iran war is now in its third month, but efforts to end it appeared to be stalling amid a new escalation of fighting in the Gulf.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said the ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia would include a halt to all “movement activities” and an exchange of 1,000 prisoners from each country.
“This request came directly from me, and I am very grateful for the agreement reached by Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of what has been a very long, deadly, and hard-fought war,” he said in the post.
Trump added that negotiations continue to move toward ending the war and are “getting closer every day.”
Writing in Telegram, President Zelenskiy acknowledged that the ceasefire was negotiated as part of US negotiation efforts and that humanitarian issues remain a key priority.
“Therefore, today, within the framework of the negotiation process mediated by the US side, we received Russia’s consent to conduct a prisoner exchange in the format of 1,000 for 1,000,” President Zelenskiy wrote.
President Zelensky also issued a tongue-in-cheek executive order “allowing” Russia’s May 9 military parade to proceed and stating that Ukrainian weapons would not target Red Square. Russia has warned that any attempt by Ukraine to disrupt the Red Square parade could trigger a major missile attack on Kiev.
The ceasefire comes after President Zelenskyy described substantive talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Miami, and a U.S. envoy is expected to visit Kiev in the coming months.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Putin’s behalf that Russia also agreed to Trump’s initiative.
“We reached an agreement on this issue in a phone conversation with the U.S. government,” he said.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defense forces intercepted Ukrainian drones heading toward the capital for seven hours until around 8pm local time (17:00 Japan time). Since President Trump announced the ceasefire, the Russian government has issued one similar notice.
Previously, Russia and Ukraine had accused each other of violating ceasefire agreements they had declared separately.
Both countries are attacking each other with missiles, drones and artillery, and there is no end in sight to the war. Peace talks have stalled after Ukraine has rejected President Putin’s demands to surrender territory it has defended since 2022.
President Putin unilaterally declared a two-day ceasefire on May 8 and 9 to cover Victory Day, Russia’s most revered national holiday.
Kiev responded that a ceasefire for the holiday was inappropriate and instead called for an indefinite ceasefire to begin two days earlier, a request Moscow ignored.
The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War II, including millions in Ukraine, but it pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler committed suicide, and in May 1945 the red Soviet victory flag was raised over the Reichstag.
There will be no military equipment on display at this year’s parade in Moscow, which typically showcases Russia’s military might with intercontinental ballistic missiles and tanks.
Moscow’s forces have been fighting in Ukraine for more than four years, longer than the Soviet Union’s involvement from 1941-45 in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War.
Russia controls about 19.4% of Ukraine, but its advances have slowed this year, capturing just 700 square kilometers in the first four months of the year, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Nandita Bose and Susan Heavey in Washington, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Mark Trevelyan in London; Additional reporting by Olena Hamash in Kyiv; Editing by William McLean, Ron Popesky and Rosalba O’Brien)
