Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a large-scale prisoner exchange after two days of US-mediated peace talks in Abu Dhabi, in the first trilateral negotiations between the warring sides in nine months.
The talks, held on November 10 and 11 in the Emirati capital, were the first direct meeting between the two sides since February. The two days of negotiations produced a measured humanitarian breakthrough but little tangible progress toward ending the war.
"This was a good first step. One of the positives is we agreed we'll have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners and we'll finalise the numbers tomorrow," US envoy Jared Kushner said after the talks. Ukraine said the prisoner swap was the "main result" of the talks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Dublin on November 11 that the proposed exchange could involve as many as 1,000 or up to 1,200 people on both sides, while the Russian General Staff said more than 1,000 prisoners would be handed over by each side over the next two to three weeks, as soon as the relevant procedures are completed.
Ukraine's chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Medinsky, both confirmed the planned exchange, although neither side provided further details on its timing or scale. Medinsky confirmed on Wednesday that a "large-scale prisoner exchange" had been agreed.
But the talks ended without a breakthrough on the central issues dividing the two sides. There was no agreement on a ceasefire, territorial disputes or long-term security guarantees, and Russia refused even to discuss an energy truce. Umerov said "significant differences remain" on other issues, and Medinsky said territorial exchanges as part of a settlement were out of the question.
The fundamental obstacle to ending the war, analysts said, is that neither side currently sees an available peace settlement that would secure its essential interests at a lower cost than continuing to fight. The talks nevertheless marked an important development: Washington is seeking to broaden negotiations beyond Ukraine's future to include wider security arrangements for Europe, potentially bringing European governments into a process from which they have been excluded.
European representatives were present in Abu Dhabi for separate consultations with Ukrainian and US officials but did not participate directly in the trilateral negotiations. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner flew to Moscow on Thursday to meet President Vladimir Putin to go over what was discussed in Abu Dhabi, before heading to Dublin to brief Zelenskyy.
The US delegation was led by Kushner — President Donald Trump's son-in-law — and Witkoff, while Russia's team was headed by Medinsky, a Putin aide, and Ukraine's by Umerov, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service. The Abu Dhabi talks were the third round of negotiations hosted in the Emirati capital this year.
For the prisoners and their families, the agreement is the most concrete outcome of months of stalled diplomacy. For the war itself, it changes little: the fighting continues, the territorial questions remain untouched, and the next round of talks will have to confront the same obstacles that ended this one. But after nine months without direct negotiations, even a prisoner swap is a sign that the two sides are talking again — and that, for now, is the only progress on offer.
