The completion of the two-day prisoner exchange was one of the few concrete results as peace negotiations stalled due to the turmoil in the Middle East.
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Published March 6, 2026
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he visited the eastern front as Ukraine and Russia completed a two-day prisoner exchange, exchanging 500 soldiers each.
The exchanges, which included 200 soldiers each on Thursday and another 300 on Friday, came as U.S.-brokered peace talks stalled and trilateral talks scheduled for this week were postponed due to escalating Middle East conflict.
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Two Ukrainian civilians also returned home.
A video of the interaction posted by Zelenskiy showed dozens of men getting off a white bus, waving and hugging border guards. One soldier was heard holding the phone to his ear and telling his mother, “I’m home. That’s it, I’m home.”
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff credited the exchange to “sustained and detailed peace talks” in Geneva under the direction of President Donald Trump, and thanked Switzerland for hosting the negotiations.
“Discussions remain ongoing,” Witkoff wrote, “and further developments are expected in the coming weeks.”
On Friday, President Zelenskiy visited positions near Drushkivka and Kostynivka in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian troops are concentrating ahead of the expected spring offensive, and visited soldiers of the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade.
He told front-line troops that their efforts are essential to strengthening Ukraine’s position in future peace negotiations.
“The stronger we are in the east, the stronger we will be in the negotiation process,” he told the military.
However, the talks, scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi from March 5 to 9, were postponed after US and Israeli attacks on Iran prompted retaliatory attacks across the Gulf.
President Zelensky said, “At the moment, due to the situation surrounding Iran, there are no signs yet that are necessary for trilateral talks.”
In an interview with Politico on Thursday, President Trump renewed pressure on Kiev to reach a settlement, insisting that President Putin was ready to strike a deal and warning that President Zelensky’s position was becoming increasingly weak.
“Now he has even fewer cards,” Trump said, but offered no evidence for his claim that Russia was ready to end the war.
President Zelensky has fiercely pushed back against Russia’s demands to cede the remaining parts of Donetsk, which is controlled by Ukraine, which has become the biggest stalemate in negotiations.
“Why should we leave our own land that we manage?” he said. “He is not successful on the battlefield. He has no strength.”
The situation on that battlefield has been slowly changing in Kiev’s favor in recent weeks.
Since late January, Ukrainian forces have retaken nine settlements in the Zaporizhzhya region, retaking more land than they lost in a single month for the first time since summer 2024.
Analysis group Deep State estimated Russia’s territorial gains in February at 126 square kilometers (49 square miles), a 20-month low, while the Institute for the Study of War estimated Ukraine’s territorial gains since January 1 at about 257 square kilometers (99 square miles).
