Russia and Ukraine Agree to Their Biggest Prisoner Release as the Abu Dhabi Talks End

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a large-scale exchange of prisoners of war as two days of U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi ended on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported — the first three-way round since February, and the first concrete result of the week.

"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," U.S. envoy Jared Kushner said after the talks closed, as the AP reported. Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation, and Rustem Umerov, who led Kyiv's, both confirmed the planned exchange, which U.S. mediators said would be bigger than all the previous prisoner swaps of the nearly five-year war. The talks also focused on returning Ukrainian civilians held in captivity, including children, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

What the round did not produce is a cease-fire. The Atlantic Council's post-talks assessment, read by the desk, records agreement in principle on the swap and no major breakthrough on a ceasefire or on territory — the two questions the war turns on. Prisoner exchanges have continued throughout the war even when talks failed, and this one is a humanitarian step, not a settlement.

The diplomacy now moves. Kushner and fellow U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff are set to travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, and then to Dublin to meet Zelenskyy, the AP reported. The fighting, meanwhile, did not pause for the talks: the AP reported a Russian strike in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and in Kharkiv wounding seven civilians overnight, and Russia said it intercepted 627 Ukrainian drones, one of which hit the port of Ust-Luga and injured three workers, according to regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko — each figure as the side reporting it stated it.