On Friday, May 23, the US President Donald Trump tweeted about the completion of the “1000 for 1000” exchange between Ukraine and Russia. However, this was not true.
This is reported by Politico.
That day, 390 Ukrainians returned home from captivity — 270 military and 120 civilians. Another 307 defenders were returned on Saturday, May 24, and the third part of the exchange is expected on Sunday.
Kyiv kept the process a closely guarded secret for security reasons for the first batch of prisoners of war, who were on their way to be exchanged at the border with Belarus. “And here in Washington, Trump woke up,” writes Politico.
"A major prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine has just been completed. It will go into effect soon. Congratulations to both sides on this agreement. Could this lead to something big?" the American president wrote on the Truth Social social network.
In fact, at that time, the first stage of the exchange had not even begun, says an anonymous Ukrainian official.
“[Trump] wanted to be the first to report this news. Fortunately, [his hasty post] did not affect the course of events. But we usually do not publish information about exchanges in progress, because you never know what to expect from the Russians. Our guys were too close to the enemy,” the source added.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov thanked Donald Trump for his help in reaching an agreement on the exchange. The publication explains this by the fact that Kyiv continues to try to involve the US president in peacemaking efforts regarding Ukraine.
- Agreements on a prisoner exchange in the format of "1000 for 1000" were reached on May 16 at a meeting of delegations of Ukraine and the Russian Federation in Istanbul. During the two days of the exchange, 697 people were returned to Ukraine.
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