US President Donald Trump said there will be a three-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine over the weekend, as well as a prisoner swap.
The ceasefire, which Trump said would last Saturday, May 9 to Monday, May 11, coincides with Russia’s Victory Day celebrations, the US president said in a social media post on Friday.
Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have both agreed to the proposal. There was no immediate comment from either Ukraine or Russia.
“This Ceasefire will include a suspension of all kinetic activity, and also a prison swap of 1,000 prisoners from each Country,” Trump wrote. “Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War.”
Russia announced a ceasefire for May 8 to 9 to coincide with commemorations of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II and a military parade in Moscow’s Red Square.
Ukraine announced its own proposal for an open-ended ceasefire that started at midnight on Tuesday, urging Russia to reciprocate.
Officials said on Thursday that Ukraine’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, had arrived in Miami for a series of meetings with US representatives as peace talks on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine have stalled in recent months.
The US-brokered talks are deadlocked over Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Moscow demands Kyiv pull troops back from parts of the region it has failed to capture in its four-year full-scale invasion. Ukraine says it will not cede land that it controls.
Moscow and Kyiv have both accused each other of violating ceasefires that each has separately declared.
