Ukraine's Zelenskiy's chief of staff says talks were 'tough'

Ukrainian President ​Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief ​of staff said ‌on Wednesday ​that two days of talks on resolving ‌the more than 4 1/2-year-old war with Russia were tough, but achieved results in ‌terms of prisoner exchanges. "The talks were ‌tough," Kyrylo Budanov wrote on Telegram. "Ukraine's position remains the same: We need to stop ⁠the ​war and ⁠create an effective security framework that will ⁠guarantee lasting peace and prevent Russian aggression from ​occurring again."

Budanov said talks on prisoner exchanges ⁠produced "a significant result. Bringing every Ukrainian back remains ⁠our top ​priority." Russian state news agency TASS quoted Russian Lieutenant-General Alexander Zorin as ⁠saying that a large-scale prisoner swap agreed at ⁠the ⁠talks could happen in the next two to three weeks.