Trump Announces Three-Day Russia-Ukraine Ceasefire With 1,000-for-1,000 Prisoner Swap

President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a three-day cessation of hostilities running May 9 through May 11, timed to coincide with Russia's Victory Day, the annual commemoration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. The ceasefire would include a suspension of all "kinetic activity" and a swap of 1,000 prisoners from each country. Trump stated he made his request for the ceasefire "directly" to both presidents. The announcement came on Truth Social and was confirmed orally by Trump as he departed the White House. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs adviser, both confirmed the agreement.

The announcement followed a bilateral session in Miami. On May 8, Kyiv's top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said he had met Special Envoy for Peace Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Miami for talks on humanitarian issues and to "coordinate further steps" toward peace. Over two days, Witkoff and Kushner met with Umerov and Chief of General Staff General Andriy Hnatov for what the State Department described as "constructive discussions," representing the sixth such session over the preceding two weeks. Witkoff has said he and Umerov had spent nearly 100 hours in discussions since late 2025. The Miami talks marked the first known high-level direct contact between Kyiv and Washington since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

Zelenskyy confirmed the arrangement publicly on Telegram, framing Ukraine's assent around the prisoner exchange rather than the parallel Russian diplomatic objective. Zelenskyy wrote that "Red Square matters less to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war who can be brought home." After releasing his statement, Zelenskyy issued a formal presidential decree "authorizing" Russia to hold the parade, declaring Red Square off-limits for Ukrainian strikes for the duration of the event. The framing of the decree appeared designed to underscore Kyiv's claim that it holds effective targeting reach over the Russian capital, while publicly tying Ukrainian restraint to the ceasefire terms. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the decree. Peskov told reporters: "We don't need anyone's permission to be proud of our Victory Day." Separately, Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine expected the United States to ensure that the Russian side fulfills these agreements, a formulation that placed Washington, not the parties themselves, in the compliance-monitoring role.

The ceasefire emerged against a backdrop of failed unilateral pause attempts earlier in the same week. Russia had announced a ceasefire for Friday and Saturday, but it quickly unraveled, with both sides blaming the other for the continued fighting, just as they had when Ukraine's own unilateral ceasefire had collapsed earlier in the week. Zelenskyy had cited sustained Russian military activity as evidence of bad faith. Russia and Ukraine traded attacks before Trump's announcement, with Ukraine's air force reporting that Russia fired 67 drones overnight, the lowest number in almost a month. Kyiv separately documented 1,820 violations of Ukraine's earlier unilateral ceasefire declaration and attributed 26 civilian deaths to Russian attacks during that window. The question of enforcement therefore attached immediately to the new arrangement. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov stated that "the agreement on this matter was reached during our telephone contacts with the administration of the U.S. president," framing the deal as bilateral between the White House and Moscow rather than trilateral.

Trump had raised the idea of a ceasefire for Victory Day as early as April, following a call with Putin, stating at the time: "I suggested a little bit of a ceasefire. And I think he might do that. He might announce something having to do with it." Trump's framework extended Russia's earlier two-day announcement to three full days and added the prisoner swap, which Russia's earlier announcement had not included. The broader peace negotiation architecture, however, remains unresolved. The broader negotiations remain stalled over a proposed 20-point plan, security guarantees, and Russia's territorial demands, with key disagreements including control over parts of Donbas and the status of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Peace talks are stalled, with Ukraine rejecting Putin's demand that it surrender territory it has successfully defended since 2022.

The ceasefire announcement also landed hours after a notably cautionary public statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Trump's announcement came hours after Rubio struck a somber tone about negotiations, telling reporters at the end of a visit to Rome and the Vatican that U.S. mediation efforts had not led to a "fruitful outcome" and that "those efforts have stagnated." That divergence in public messaging between the State Department and the White House underscores the degree to which the ceasefire was driven by direct presidential intervention rather than a structured interagency diplomatic process. Witkoff and Kushner are expected to visit Moscow "soon enough" to commence fresh talks, according to Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the ceasefire and prisoner exchange, with his spokesperson reiterating calls for an "unconditional and lasting ceasefire, as a first step toward a just, sustainable and comprehensive peace."