ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a large exchange of prisoners of war, officials said Wednesday after two days of U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi, NPR reported.
“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,” said Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky and Rustem Umerov, who led Kyiv’s delegation, confirmed the planned exchange, according to NPR.
It was the first meeting between the delegations in nine months, and hopes for a breakthrough were low. The two sides have swapped prisoners periodically during the nearly five-year war.
Kushner said he and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet President Vladimir Putin and then to Dublin to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy called Tuesday’s session “constructive and quite substantive” and said talks focused on humanitarian issues, including prisoner exchanges and the return of captive Ukrainian civilians and children taken from the country. Security guarantees were also discussed, though neither side has shown willingness to compromise on core demands, NPR reported.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the meeting “very productive” but cautioned that ending the war will take time.
Fighting continued during the talks. Russia struck the Zaporizhzhia region and Kharkiv overnight, wounding seven civilians, and Russia’s Defense Ministry said it downed 627 Ukrainian drones, according to NPR. A regional governor said drones started a fire at the Ust-Luga oil port, injuring three workers.
European officials were in Abu Dhabi consulting with Ukraine’s delegation, though Moscow opposes their direct involvement.
Sources: NPR. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Makalu / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons.
