Ukraine Warupdated 14m ago2 min read
Russia and Ukraine Agree Large-Scale Prisoner Exchange in Abu Dhabi Talks, No Ceasefire
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Russia and Ukraine reach a large-scale prisoner exchange agreement in Abu Dhabi talks. Talks mediated by the United States, with plans to announce details soon.
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Abu Dhabi ends with swap
Russia and Ukraine concluded two days of talks in Abu Dhabi mediated by the United States, agreeing to a large-scale prisoner exchange but failing to reach a ceasefire. Jared Kushner said the number of prisoners would be finalized on Thursday, and Vladimir Medinsky said the details of the exchange would be announced soon.
Vladimir Medinsky also said the second day focused on humanitarian issues, while the negotiations continued on postwar security arrangements. Rustem Umerov said the talks generated "good momentum" toward finding a solution before the end of the year, and Dmitry Medvedenko said prisoner exchanges have been a regular occurrence without this level of diplomatic work.
Competing security demands
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the Russian delegation did not engage with European representatives in Abu Dhabi, and the Kremlin said there were no plans for such contacts. Ukraine’s peace negotiator David Arakhamia said the next talks should be multilateral, not trilateral, and that Europe should be represented.
Kushner said the negotiations were "very substantive" and described the prisoner exchange as one of the positive outcomes of the talks. David Arakhamia told Al Jazeera that the prisoner exchange agreement came with "good momentum" but that territorial issues would be the hardest to settle, while Kushner said security guarantees for the postwar cannot be implemented until an agreement is reached on the territories.
Next steps and what’s at risk
The talks set up a sequence in which Kushner and Steve Witkoff planned to travel to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin and then fly to Dublin to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy said he did not think it was possible to think about European security "without Europe," and he said the first step must be ending the war and providing security guarantees for Ukraine.
“The exchange is expected to take place within two to three weeks.”
Vladimir Medinsky warned that Russia would not discuss European security without concrete proposals, and he criticized European countries for financing and supplying weapons to Ukraine. Dmitry Medvedenko said that for the exchange to be the biggest it should top the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange in May last year, while Al Jazeera reported that the prisoner exchange should happen in two to three weeks if finalized.