President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have agreed to an exchange of prisoners, Russia’s foreign minister said Tuesday.
“President Trump is a man who wants results,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Turkey, claiming that Trump’s efforts were being “sabotaged” by some European countries as he referred to ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Lavrov did not provide further details on the exchange and the State Department did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.
Russia has maintained that it wants to end the war in Ukraine, which began when Putin launched an invasion in 2022, but has not backed away from its maximalist demands that Ukraine essentially disarm and hand over vast swaths of territory.
If the deal is confirmed by the State Department and comes to fruition, it will be the first exchange since last month, when a Russian-American woman, former-ballerina Ksenia Karelina, was freed after being imprisoned for treason by Russia. She was released in exchange for Russian national Arthur Petrov, the State Department said at the time.
That followed the return of American teacher Marc Fogel in February, after he spent 3½ years in prison for a minor medical cannabis infraction. Going the other way in that exchange was convicted money launderer Alexander Vinnik.
And that swap came after the massive deal in which four U.S. residents wrongly imprisoned in Russia — including journalist Evan Gershkovich and Marine veteran Paul Whelan — were released last August as part of a multinational prisoner exchange the likes of which had not been seen since the Cold War.
The large and complex deal, cut among seven nations, involved 24 people, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens held in Russia, and eight Russians imprisoned in the U.S., Germany, Slovenia, Norway and Poland.
The deal would mark the latest twist in the complicated relationship between Trump and Putin.
The two have long shared an obvious rapport, meeting on multiple occasions and exchanging warm words during Trump’s first term. But tensions have been mounting, with Trump seeking to end the war in Ukraine — something he promised to accomplish within the first 24 hours of his second term — and Russia resisting those efforts.
With relations between the White House and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warming recently — a large critical minerals deal and praise for Trump from the Ukrainian leader helped smooth things over after the two leaders’ extraordinary Oval Office showdown earlier this year — Putin’s star may have fallen in Washington.
Trump on Sunday wrote on Truth Social that Putin “has gone absolutely CRAZY!” and is “needlessly killing a lot of people” after Russia unleashed a massive aerial assault on Ukraine on Saturday with drones and missiles targeting more than 30 cities and villages.
The attacks came even as Russia and Ukraine began a major prisoner exchange of hundreds of soldiers and civilians, in the largest such swap in the three-year war so far. The deal was agreed upon during talks in Istanbul earlier this month, but those talks failed to reach a ceasefire agreement.
Trump, who has shifted U.S. policy direction from outright supporting Ukraine to considering Russia’s account of the war, had warned he would tighten sanctions on Russia if a peace deal isn’t reached. But he appeared to back off his warning last week when the president declined to impose additional sanctions on Moscow for not agreeing to an immediate pause in fighting.
The two are last known to have spoken last week, when they exchanged a call that didn’t appear to bring Russia any closer to a ceasefire.
European countries, however, aren’t waiting around for U.S. direction or guarantees when it comes to the war.
The European Union and Britain last week announced a new round of sanctions against Russia, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying on X that it was “time to intensify the pressure on Russia to bring about the ceasefire.”
Germany last week deployed a permanent military brigade beyond its borders for the first time since the end of World War II, before announcing Tuesday that it will become Ukraine’s last major Western ally to lift all range restrictions on weapons it sends to Kyiv for use inside Russia.
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