Photo: Volodymyr Zelensky / Telegram

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 307 prisoners of war each on the second day of a major prisoner swap due to conclude on Sunday, the Russian Defence Ministry and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday.

This brings the number of prisoners exchanged so far to 697 people, Zelensky said on his Telegram channel, thanking “everyone involved in the exchange process who are working around the clock” and stressing that Ukraine’s goal was to return every prisoner of war from Russian captivity. “We expect to continue tomorrow,” Zelensky added.

The Russian Defence Ministry also confirmed the large-scale swap would “continue”, adding that the Russian soldiers were currently in Belarus and would soon be transported to Russia. Telegram channel Mash previously reported that the exchange had taken place on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border, without specifying the exact location.

Both sides have confirmed that the exchange was part of the “1,000-for-1,000” prisoner exchange that Moscow and Kyiv agreed to following discussions in Istanbul last Friday, in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “perhaps the only real result” of their first head-to-head talks in years.

Several prisoner swaps have taken place since the full-scale war began, though the agreed-upon “1,000-for-1,000” exchange would mark the largest such exchange in the last three years.