Russia and Ukraine agreed on Wednesday to a large-scale prisoner exchange after two days of crucial talks in Abu Dhabi that also yielded progress on practical issues, including mechanisms to monitor a ceasefire.
“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. Negotiator Rustem Umerov said “significant differences remain” on other issues but that the talks gave Ukraine and Russia the chance to set out their positions.
Mr Kusnher said the talks “made good progress on understanding how to deconflict … and how to monitor the ceasefire and making sure we have the right agreements and the right understandings in place to do some major de-escalation postwar”.
“I think this was a positive step,” he said. “When [fellow US envoy] Steve [Witkoff] and I were in Oslo and St Petersburg, we weren’t sure we’d get to this trilateral format; it’s been a long way to get everyone back to the table, but this was a very good first meeting – a tough meeting, but a productive one.”
US, Ukrainian and EU officials held talks in Oslo on October 20 to discuss proposals to end the war. The following day, US and Russian officials met in St Petersburg to discuss resuming trilateral negotiations.
Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky confirmed on Wednesday that a “large-scale prisoner exchange” had been agreed in the talks in Abu Dhabi. He credited the UAE with providing a “friendly business atmosphere” for the talks.
The UAE has said earlier that it was optimistic that the talks between Russian and Ukraine, mediated by the US and hosted in Abu Dhabi, would lead to a breakthrough towards ending the conflict.
“Abu Dhabi’s hosting of the US-Russian-Ukrainian negotiations reflects the UAE’s standing and its constructive role in facilitating dialogue and bridging differences,” Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to President Sheikh Mohamed, wrote on X.
“We are optimistic that these talks will achieve a positive breakthrough, paving the way for conditions that could bring an end to a prolonged war and a deep-rooted crisis.
“We firmly believe that political and diplomatic solutions are the path to sustainable peace that strengthens security and stability in the international order.”
Russia, Ukraine and the US held the first day of talks since February in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. The release of prisoners and future security guarantees were at the centre of the discussions. The US delegation was led by Mr Kushner – who is President Donald Trump's son-in-law – and Mr Witkoff.
Before the talks, US, EU and Ukrainian officials met to discuss the peace process. Mr Witkoff said they had discussed how to build on existing EU security institutions and agreements after the war, while recognising the need to address postwar security concerns and reduce the risk of future conflict. Russia, however, opposes any EU role in the process.
Mr Kushner announced after the meetings on Wednesday that he and Mr Witkoff would travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet President Vladimir Putin “to go over what was discussed in Abu Dhabi and try to make more progress on some of the issues we discussed, because we see some openings and opportunities there”.
After that, they will meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to brief him on the discussions and explore ideas raised in Abu Dhabi. “One of the goals of the meeting in Moscow, in addition to finalising the humanitarian relief and release of prisoners and other humanitarian issues we’re working on together, is going to be to try and see if we can get Europeans added to the format to make this a multilateral format,” Mr Kushner added.
“We had here the EU and Nato and the UK, Italy, Germany and France, and we’re very united in all the discussions we had. The goal is to turn this into a multilateral format.”
However, the Russian negotiator dismissed the involvement of EU representatives. “We haven’t spoken with them. We don’t really understand their status here,” pro-Kremlin media quoted him as saying.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, had welcomed the move to hold the talks in the UAE capital, and expressed hope that they would result in “practical steps” towards ending Russia's war on Ukraine.
The Abu Dhabi talks were the third round of negotiations hosted in the Emirati capital this year. Mr Kushner said they followed two months of “good discussions” with the Russian and Ukrainian leadership separately. He said good ideas had been raised on how to bridge gaps.
Despite the talks, Russia struck six large electricity substations in Ukraine's four central regions, Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said on Wednesday. He added on the Telegram app that Russian forces had also struck railways in eastern and central Ukraine.
