President Trump said on Friday that he hopes a temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine will be extended beyond the announced three days, after the two countries agreed to halt fighting through the weekend.
“I’d like to see a big extension,” Trump told The Hill’s sister network NewsNation after White House correspondent Kellie Meyer asked whether he planned to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again about continuing the ceasefire.
Trump announced earlier in the day that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a three-day ceasefire, set to begin on Saturday, coinciding with Russia’s Victory Day celebrations. The two nations also agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each as part of a swap.
The president denied that the request came directly from Putin, telling reporters he asked for it and both leaders agreed “readily.”
“We have a little period of time where they’re not going to be killing people. That’s very good,” he said. “And they also agreed to give … a thousand prisoners back, so they’re going to be transferring almost immediately a thousand prisoners from each side. That’s very good.”
Kyiv and Moscow separately declared unilateral ceasefires earlier this week, with each side accusing the other of violating the truce. Russia reportedly threatened to strike Ukraine if it was not allowed to hold its Victory Day festivities, which commemorate the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
This year’s celebration will be the first time in nearly two decades that no tanks, missiles or other military equipment are paraded through Moscow’s Red Square, according to The Associated Press.
Zelensky confirmed the ceasefire in a post on the social platform X, noting his country’s support to pause hostilities was largely due to the prospect of a prisoner exchange, which he called “one of the key humanitarian issues” of the war.
“Red Square is less important to us than the lives of Ukrainian prisoners who can be returned home,” he wrote. “Ukraine is consistently working to return its people from Russian captivity. I have instructed our team to promptly prepare everything necessary for the exchange.”
The United Nations Human Rights Office reported that more than 3,000 prisoners of war and civilian detainees were released from both sides between the end of May and August 2025, marking the largest exchange between the countries since the war began in 2022.
