Ukraine Warupdated 21m ago3 min read
Russia and Ukraine Agree Large Prisoner Exchange After Abu Dhabi Talks End Without Breakthrough
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Russia and Ukraine reach a large prisoner exchange agreement at Abu Dhabi peace talks. Mediated by the United States, talks produced no major breakthrough on war-ending terms.
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Abu Dhabi talks, no breakthrough
Russia and Ukraine agreed to a large exchange of prisoners of war as two days of US mediated talks ended in Abu Dhabi without a major breakthrough on ending the war, which began after Moscow’s full scale invasion nearly five years ago. Vladimir Medinsky said the talks in the United Arab Emirates capital produced agreement on a large scale prisoner swap, while the negotiations still left both sides far apart on demands for accepting a peace settlement. Jared Kushner said after the talks concluded that the U.S. delegation would travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Kushner described the meetings as a "positive step."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said negotiators discussed new prisoner exchanges, "security guarantees for Ukraine" and "broader formats for further work involving the Europeans," while the talks still ended without a breakthrough announcement. The negotiations also ran alongside reported cross border drone strikes overnight into Wednesday, with Aleksandr Drozdenko saying "150 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the region overnight" over the Leningrad region where Ust-Luga is located.
Drone attacks and civilian harm
Russia and Ukraine exchanged large cross border drone strikes overnight into Wednesday before the second day of trilateral U.S.-Ukraine-Russia peace talks concluded without a breakthrough in Abu Dhabi.
Aleksandr Drozdenko told Telegram that "the target of the attack was the port area of Ust-Luga" and that a fire broke out after drones hit the area, injuring three workers whose lives were not in danger.
Andriy Kovalenko said in a Telegram post, "Something is burning in the area near the port of Ust-Luga, near St. Petersburg."
The Defense Ministry in Moscow said the drones reported intercepted over Leningrad were among at least 627 craft downed by Russian forces overnight, while Ukrainian craft were shot down over 22 regions including Moscow and occupied Crimea.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that Russian attacks also injured six people in the Zaporizhzhia region, one person in Kharkiv and five people in Zhytomyr.
Next steps hinge on territory
Al Jazeera reported that Kushner told a news conference the number of prisoners would be finalised on Thursday, while Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said more talks would be held in the near future. Dmitry Medvedenko told Al Jazeera that prisoner exchanges have been a regular occurrence, saying, "Every two or three months you have 100 to 300 prisoners exchanged by both sides; this is a channel that actually works," even as diplomatic work reached a new level. CBS News said 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.
Zelenskyy said in a statement that "Ukraine's priority is to end the war as soon as possible with a dignified peace," and Zelenskyy also said, "We believe that Europe must be represented at every stage of real diplomacy." The next test for the prisoner swap and any broader settlement was set for Moscow, where U.S. envoys planned to meet Vladimir Putin before traveling to Dublin to meet Zelenskyy, while the talks in Abu Dhabi left disagreements over territory, security guarantees and Europe’s role unresolved.