During a press briefing in Washington following his talks at the White House, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the exchange of military and civilian prisoners should be a crucial part of the negotiation process.

Zelensky remarked at the briefing: "The First Lady and the team from the United States understand that they will be involved in this vital and complex issue of returning Ukrainian children." He added, "We discussed this with the US President, who agrees that it is a challenging system, but he will assist me in the exchange of all for all. This includes not only military prisoners, primarily our soldiers, but also civilians – journalists and political prisoners. We agreed to work on this together."

It is worth noting that earlier, Trump stated that a potential prisoner exchange could take place following a trilateral meeting involving the US, Ukraine, and Russia. He mentioned that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine, but partners need to discuss “who will do what” first.