Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a large-scale exchange of prisoners of war following two days of U.S.-mediated negotiations in Abu Dhabi, marking the most concrete result yet from the Trump administration’s renewed push to end the war.
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, announced the agreement Wednesday as the talks wrapped up in the United Arab Emirates. He called the swap the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners and said the final numbers would be settled on Thursday.
The heads of both delegations confirmed the deal. Vladimir Medinsky led the Russian team, and Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, led Kyiv’s negotiators. Umerov said the negotiators were heading back to their capitals to finalize the details.
The Abu Dhabi meeting was the first direct negotiation between Moscow and Kyiv in nine months. The previous round took place in Geneva in February.
The talks did not produce a breakthrough on the central disputes. Ceasefire terms and control of territory in eastern Ukraine remain the main sticking points. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the discussions also covered the return of Ukrainian civilians held in captivity and of children taken from the country. Umerov said security guarantees were on the table as well.
Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff are now expected to travel to Moscow to brief Russian President Vladimir Putin on what was discussed in Abu Dhabi. They will then go to Dublin to meet with Zelenskyy.
The two envoys are working toward an agreement that would set out a post-war arrangement for both countries, provide security guarantees for Ukraine and build a European security framework that, they argue, takes Russia’s concerns into account.
European government, European Union and NATO representatives were in Abu Dhabi for separate consultations with the Ukrainian and American delegations, but they did not take part in the three-way talks. The Kremlin had objected to European involvement.
The negotiations come as fighting continues along a front line where little territory has changed hands this year.
The political backdrop in Washington has also changed. After sweeping victories in last week’s midterm elections, Democrats will control both chambers of Congress starting in January, and some lawmakers could push for more aid to Ukraine.
This is not the first swap the administration has brokered in Abu Dhabi. In February, after an earlier round of U.S.-led talks there, Russia and Ukraine exchanged 314 prisoners, 157 from each side. Witkoff announced that deal at the time and described the negotiations as detailed and productive. It was the first exchange between the two countries in roughly five months.
The new agreement looks set to surpass that one. Kushner’s description suggests it could be the largest humanitarian exchange of the war.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the war is now the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Officials on both sides are expected to release more details on the size and timing of the exchange once the numbers are finalized.
