Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi end with prisoner exchange agreement

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The talks in the UAE capital were the first ⁠between the two warring sides since February.

Two days of talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials, mediated by the United States, have yielded agreement on a prisoner exchange but failed to make a breakthrough on ending the war, which is nearing the five-year mark.

Russia’s chief ⁠⁠negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said at the talks ⁠⁠in the United Arab Emirates capital, Abu Dhabi, on Wednesday that both sides had agreed on a large-scale prisoner swap and that mutual understanding ⁠⁠had been achieved on some issues.

Russia’s state-run news agency TASS reported that the prisoner exchange should happen in two to three weeks. If finalised, it would be the latest in a ⁠long line of such ⁠exchanges.

US envoy Jared Kushner told a news conference the number of prisoners would be finalised on Thursday. He added that he would travel to Moscow alongside US special envoy Steve Witkoff to relay what was discussed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and “make more progress on some of the issues that were discussed, because we see some openings and some opportunities there”.

Kushner and Witkoff are then scheduled to fly to Dublin, Ireland, to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “and explore some of the ideas we came up with”.

Political analyst Dmitry Medvedenko told Al Jazeera that prisoner exchanges have been a regular occurrence without this level of diplomatic work. “Every two or three months you have 100 to 300 prisoners exchanged by both sides; this is a channel that actually works,” he said.

Ukraine and Russia freed 200 prisoners of war each in March following talks in Geneva, Switzerland, in February. Last year, they each exchanged 146 prisoners after mediation by the UAE, and large-scale prisoner exchanges followed three rounds of talks in Istanbul, Turkiye, from May to July.

“For it to be the biggest prisoner exchange, it should top the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange in May last year,” Medvedenko said.

The two warring sides entered Wednesday’s talks far apart on terms for a possible settlement to the war.

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