Officials at U.S.-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine said Wednesday the two sides had agreed to a large exchange of prisoners of war. Russia’s demand to have its seizure of a huge swath of eastern Ukraine recognized as legitimate appeared to remain a key hurdle on the path to any breakthrough on a wider peace deal, however.
“One of the positives is we agreed that we’re going to have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners, which we’re going to finalize the numbers tomorrow,” Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and one of the two senior U.S. negotiators at the meetings, said after the two days of talks in Abu Dhabi ended.
Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, and Rustem Umerov, who led Kyiv’s delegation in Abu Dhabi, confirmed the planned exchange.
Hopes had been low for any major breakthroughs in the first meeting in nine months between the delegations. Russia and Ukraine have from time to time swapped prisoners during their nearly five-year war.
U.S. officials have said they are determined to revive Washington’s peace efforts, which so far have failed to deliver significant results. Kushner said he and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff would travel to Moscow Thursday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, then fly to Dublin to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Putin’s senior aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters the U.S. envoys would arrive in Moscow Thursday morning and meet with Putin in the first half of the day.
Asked if there were plans to discuss any major new proposals, including on the dispute over Russia’s claim to Ukrainian territory, or security guarantees for both countries, Ushakov said the results of the negotiations in Abu Dhabi were yet to be fully understood in Moscow, but he added that Russia believed Kushner and Witkoff were “bringing something with them.”
Medinsky, speaking later to Russia’s Vesti program, said Russia and Ukraine had moved closer to peace following the talks, but that much would still depend on the positions of Ukraine and the U.S., as well as “on whether Europe will come to its senses.”
Russia has, throughout the war, tried to drive a wedge between the U.S. and its longtime NATO allies in Europe. European nations, along with Zelenskyy, have warned for years — long before Putin ordered the ongoing full-scale invasion — that capitulating to Russia would encourage the autocratic leader in the Kremlin to seek more territorial advances. President Trump, however, has pushed Kyiv to accept a deal that Zelenskyy and the Europeans believe would strongly favor Russia.
The context of the negotiations has changed since the last meeting in February in Geneva. The Trump administration has to reckon with Democrats, who could demand more support for Ukraine, taking over the U.S. Congress in January following the U.S. midterm elections.
Also, Russia’s wartime economy is under heavy strain, and Ukraine is reeling from devastating aerial attacks on its power grid.
Umerov said Kyiv’s delegation was expected to meet Wednesday with European officials, and Zelenskyy, on a visit to Denmark, acknowledged the prisoner exchange agreement and said after the delegations in Abu Dhabi “discussed their views on guaranteeing security,” that it was “necessary that the first step be ending this war and providing security guarantees for Ukraine.”
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Zelenskyy said that after Kushner and Witkoff’s visit to Moscow on Thursday, “we will coordinate our positions once again and determine what next steps are possible,” confirming that the American envoys would head from Moscow to Dublin to meet again with Ukrainian officials.
“Ukraine’s priority is to end the war as soon as possible with a dignified peace. We believe that Europe must be represented at every stage of real diplomacy,” he said. “It is essential that the United States have a strong position and exert influence on the source of this war — that is Russia — so that Russia ends the war of its own making.”
Moscow has said it doesn’t want European countries, which are concerned about Russia’s conduct and broader intentions on the continent, involved in the direct negotiations. However, representatives of European governments, the European Union and NATO were in Abu Dhabi and consulted with the Ukrainian delegation, officials said.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday’s session was “constructive and quite substantive,” but he balked at what he said had been a U.S. request for Ukraine to accept territorial concessions in exchange for security guarantees that fall short of his long-stated goal of Ukrainian NATO membership.
“No one believes that Putin will stop if we give up the Donbas,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday, referring to eastern regions that have been largely, but not entirely occupied by Russia. “He might pause — but then he will return in a year, two years or five years. And who will be to blame then?”
“We discussed in detail the substance of security guarantees for Ukraine and the foundations for their long-term effectiveness,” he said Tuesday, stressing that Ukraine needed “practical mechanisms to prevent any recurrence of the war.”
This week’s talks have largely focused on humanitarian issues, including the prisoner exchange and the potential return of Ukrainian civilians in captivity, as well as children taken from the country, Zelenskyy said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the Tuesday meeting “very productive,” while cautioning that a breakthrough on stopping the war would take time.
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Fighting on the front line in eastern Ukraine continues unabated, meanwhile. Little territory has changed hands this year, as both countries batter each other with long-range missiles and drones.
Overnight, Russia struck the southern Zaporizhzhia region and the eastern city of Kharkiv, wounding seven civilians and damaging property. Another strike hit a busy market in the southern region of Odesa, killing three people and injuring 11 others, according to regional governor Oleh Kiper.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 627 Ukrainian drones overnight, 150 of them over the region around St. Petersburg, according to the regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko.
He said the drones started a fire at the port of Ust-Luga, one of the main facilities for Russian oil exports, injuring three workers.
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