The US and Russia are negotiating a prisoner exchange, the Kremlin has said, while criticising European leaders over the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Washington and Moscow were continuing discussions on a prisoner swap after Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke of exchanging nine people from each side during their phone call last week, according to Reuters.
Moscow’s claimed diplomatic development comes after Trump called Putin “absolutely crazy” for a record-breaking drone attack on Ukraine, and the Kremlin said the US president was being “emotional”.
Mr Trump issued some of his sharpest criticism of Mr Putin after Russia fired 355 drones and nine missiles at Ukraine — the largest aerial attack of the more than three-year war.
He added that if the Russian leader tried to conquer all of Ukraine, it would “lead to the downfall of Russia” as he warned of further sanctions.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz earlier said Ukraine was no longer restricted from carrying out “long-range” strikes against Russia with weapons supplied by its Western allies, before Berlin clarified that the decision had been made some months before.
The news prompted Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to accuse European leaders of keeping a decision “made quite some time ago” under wraps.
