ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a major prisoner-of-war exchange following two days of U.S.-mediated negotiations, officials said Wednesday.
“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,” Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said after the talks concluded in Abu Dhabi.
Vladimir Medinsky, who heads Russia’s delegation, and Rustem Umerov, Kyiv’s lead negotiator, both confirmed that an exchange was planned.
Expectations for a significant breakthrough had been limited ahead of the first direct meeting between the delegations in nine months. Russia and Ukraine have carried out periodic prisoner exchanges during their nearly five-year war.
U.S. officials said they remain committed to restarting Washington’s peace initiative, which has so far produced few major results.
Kushner said he and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff would travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet with President Vladimir Putin before flying to Dublin for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The negotiations are unfolding in a different political and military environment than the previous meeting in Geneva in February. The Trump administration is also preparing for the possibility that Democrats, who may seek greater support for Ukraine, will take control of Congress in January after the U.S. midterm elections.
Russia’s wartime economy is facing significant pressure, while Ukraine is struggling to restore power infrastructure damaged by intense Russian air attacks.
Umerov said Ukraine’s delegation was also expected to hold meetings with European officials on Wednesday.
Moscow opposes the direct involvement of European nations, which remain alarmed by Russia’s actions and wider ambitions on the continent. Nevertheless, officials said representatives of European governments, the European Union and NATO were in Abu Dhabi and consulting with Ukraine’s delegation.
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Zelenskyy described Tuesday’s talks as “constructive and quite substantive.”
He said the discussions focused largely on humanitarian matters, including potential prisoner exchanges, the return of Ukrainian civilians held in captivity and the repatriation of children taken from Ukraine.
Security guarantees were also on the agenda. Despite those discussions, neither Russia nor Ukraine has indicated that it is prepared to compromise on its core demands.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the meeting “very productive” but warned that reaching an agreement to end the war would require more time.
The Abu Dhabi negotiations are taking place as fighting continues along the front, where neither side has made significant territorial gains this year.
At the same time, Russia and Ukraine continue to launch waves of long-range missiles and drones against one another.
Overnight, Russian strikes hit the southern Zaporizhzhia region and the eastern city of Kharkiv, killing no one but wounding seven civilians and damaging property.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted 627 Ukrainian drones overnight. Regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said 150 of them were downed over the area surrounding St. Petersburg.
Drozdenko said the drones sparked a fire at the port of Ust-Luga, one of Russia’s largest oil-export facilities, and injured three workers.
