Officials from Russia and Ukraine said Wednesday they have agreed to carry out a large exchange of prisoners of war following two days of U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi.
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said the numbers involved would be finalized the next day. “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,” he said after the talks concluded.
Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation, and Rustem Umerov, who headed Kyiv’s delegation, both confirmed the planned exchange.
The meeting marked the first time the two delegations had sat down together in nine months, and expectations for a major breakthrough had been low. Russia and Ukraine have periodically swapped prisoners during the nearly five-year war, and U.S. officials say they are now pushing to revive peace efforts that have so far produced little.
Kushner said he and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff would travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet President Vladimir Putin before flying on to Dublin to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A Changed Landscape
The political backdrop has shifted since the delegations last met in Geneva in February. The Trump administration now faces a Congress where Democrats, who could press for more support for Ukraine, take over in January following the U.S. midterm elections.
At the same time, Russia’s wartime economy is under heavy strain, while Ukraine is struggling with devastating aerial attacks on its power grid.
Umerov said Kyiv’s delegation was expected to meet separately on Wednesday with European officials. Moscow has resisted direct involvement of European governments in the negotiations, but representatives of European governments, the European Union and NATO were present in Abu Dhabi and consulting with the Ukrainian side, officials said.
Humanitarian Focus, Unresolved Demands
Zelenskyy described Tuesday’s session as “constructive and quite substantive.” He said the talks centered largely on humanitarian issues, including possible prisoner exchanges, the return of Ukrainian civilians held in captivity, and children taken from the country. Security guarantees were also discussed, he said, though neither side has shown willingness to compromise on its core demands.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the meeting “very productive” but cautioned that any breakthrough toward ending the war would take time.
Fighting Continues
The Abu Dhabi talks took place as fighting continued along the front line, where little territory has changed hands this year, and as both countries kept trading long-range missile and drone strikes.
Overnight, Russia struck Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region and the eastern city of Kharkiv, wounding seven civilians and damaging property.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 627 Ukrainian drones overnight, 150 of them over the region around St. Petersburg. Regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said the drones sparked a fire at the port of Ust-Luga, a major facility for Russian oil exports, injuring three workers.
