Russia and Ukraine Agree to a Large Prisoner Exchange as the Abu Dhabi Talks End - No Breakthrough on Ending the War
Two days of U.S.-mediated talks, the first meeting in nine months, produced the war's planned biggest humanitarian release of prisoners - numbers to be finalized Thursday, a swap possible within two or three weeks - and no movement on the settlement itself.
Russia and Ukraine agreed on Wednesday to a large exchange of prisoners of war as two days of U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi concluded, both sides said, in the first meeting between the delegations in nine months - and they announced no major breakthrough on ending a war that began with Moscow's full-scale invasion nearly five years ago, the Associated Press reported. Wednesday's session lasted just under two hours, after a four-hour session the day before.
The one concrete product is humanitarian. U.S. envoy Jared Kushner, who mediated alongside Steve Witkoff, said the sides had agreed to what he called the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners of the war, with the numbers to be finalized on Thursday. Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky and Rustem Umerov, who led Kyiv's contingent, confirmed the planned exchange, although Medinsky noted the agreement was in principle. A Russian general staff official, Alexander Zorin, told Russian state television it would be one of the biggest swaps following the 1,000 soldiers returned home last year, and that the latest exchange could take place in the next two or three weeks.
The diplomacy now moves to the two capitals. Kushner said he and Witkoff will travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet President Vladimir Putin, then fly to Dublin, Ireland, to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Umerov said Kyiv's delegation was also expected to meet later Wednesday with representatives of European governments, the European Union and NATO who were in Abu Dhabi but did not attend the three-way talks - Moscow does not want European countries in the direct negotiations, and Kushner said one goal of the Moscow meeting is to try to get Europeans added.
Nothing about the fighting paused for the talks. Ukrainian officials said three people were killed and 11 injured after Russia launched a daytime attack on a market in the southern Odesa region, and overnight strikes hit the Zaporizhzhia region and Kharkiv, wounding seven civilians, while Russia said its air defenses downed 627 Ukrainian drones overnight. The hurdles the envoys named are the ones that have stalled every round: postwar security guarantees, the fate of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, and Europe's role in any settlement. The prisoner agreement is real, and it is the only one there is tonight.
