After the talks in Istanbul, both said it would involve more than 1,000 captured soldiers, making it the largest exchange of the three-year war.
The swap itself had appeared in jeopardy over the weekend, when Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations of delaying and thwarting the planned exchange.
Zelenskyy accused Russia on Sunday of playing a “dirty, political game” and of not sticking to the agreed parameters – to free all captured soldiers that are sick, wounded or under the age of 25.
Russia said Kyiv was refusing to take back bodies of dead soldiers, 1,200 of which it said were waiting in refrigerated trucks near the border.
TALKS “POINTLESS”
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered the biggest European conflict since World War II, forced millions to flee their homes and decimated much of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Pressed by United States President Donald Trump to end the conflict, the two sides have opened direct negotiations for the first time in more than three years in search of an agreement.
But they appear as far apart as ever from an agreement.
In Istanbul on Jun 2, Russia demanded Ukraine withdraw its forces from areas still under its control, recognise Moscow’s annexation of five Ukrainian regions and renounce all Western military support.
Kyiv is seeking a full ceasefire and a summit between Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump to try to break the impasse.
While welcoming prisoners of war exchanges, Zelenskyy said last week it was “pointless” to hold further talks with the current Russian delegation, whom he previously dismissed as “empty heads”, since they could not agree to a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, fighting on the front lines and in the skies has intensified.
Russia said on Sunday its troops had crossed into Ukraine’s industrial Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in its campaign, a potentially key advance given that Moscow has not put forward a territorial claim to that region.
And Moscow launched a record 479 drones at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv’s air force said on Monday.
The Ukrainian mayor of the western city of Rivne, Oleksandr Tretyak, called it “the largest attack” on the region since the start of the war.
Russia said it had targeted an airfield near the village of Dubno in the Rivne region.
It called the attack “one of the retaliatory strikes” for a brazen drone attack by Ukraine on Jun 1 against Russian military jets stationed at air bases thousands of kilometres behind the front line.
Kyiv also claimed responsibility for an attack on a Russian electronics factory overnight, saying it manufactured parts for drones.
Russian officials said the site had been forced to temporarily suspend production after a Ukrainian drone attack.
