The White House appreciated the prisoner exchange

The most positive outcome of the technical talks between Ukraine and Russia that took place last week in Istanbul: the planned return of 1,000 prisoners of war from each side.

Keith Kellogg

US President's Special Representative for Ukraine

In addition, Kellogg publicly expressed gratitude to Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov for his significant contribution to achieving this.

"We need a ceasefire — the killings must stop," Trump's envoy concluded.

As mentioned earlier, on May 23, the US President officially confirmed that a large-scale prisoner exchange had been finalized between Kyiv and Moscow.

A few hours later, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced that 390 people had returned to Ukraine during the first day of exchanges.

What is important to understand is that this agreement was almost the only real result of the negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in Istanbul, which took place on May 16 for the first time in more than three years.