By Tom Ozimek
Contributing Writer
Russia and Ukraine agreed to a large prisoner exchange as a second day of U.S.-brokered talks ended in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, officials said, with American negotiators preparing to meet the two countries’ presidents to advance efforts to end the war.
Calling the discussions “pretty tough” and “very substantive,” U.S. envoy Jared Kushner told reporters that the sides touched on all relevant issues in the long-running conflict.
“We were able to do a good exchange of ideas — some areas we see places where we can find compromises, others we need to have more discussions,” Kushner said of the talks, which were the first direct negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations since February.
One area where agreement was reached was prisoner exchanges, with Kushner saying the numbers would be finalized on Thursday.
“One of the positives is we agreed that we’re going to have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners,” he said.
Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Rustem Umerov, confirmed the prisoner exchange deal.
“We reached a fundamental agreement on another large-scale prisoner exchange,” said Medinsky, who noted that humanitarian issues were a major point of discussion, according to Russian state-run media outlet TASS.
Russian Lt. Gen. Alexander Zorin, who participated in the talks, was cited by TASS as saying that the exchange could take place within two to three weeks, once the procedures were agreed upon.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Denmark on Tuesday that negotiators were considering an exchange involving 1,000 or 1,500 people from each side.
Zelenskyy said in a Tuesday post on X that “a lot of questions” remain and that there was a need to “sit and speak at the level of leaders” to resolve the most vexing issues, including around territory.
Kushner said he and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to make more progress on issues discussed during Wednesday’s talks “because we see some openings and some opportunities there.”
The two U.S. envoys will then fly to Dublin for talks with Zelenskyy, Kushner added.
One of the aims of the Moscow visit, Kushner said, is to get Europeans added to the format.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited by TASS as telling reporters on Wednesday that Putin is open to potential contacts with European representatives. He added that, so far in this round of talks, the Russian delegation has not held any discussions with European representatives.
Medinsky thanked Witkoff and Kushner for their mediation, saying its importance would be measured by how many lives it saved.
“We are very grateful to them,” he said, according to TASS.
Ahead of the trilateral negotiations, U.S., Ukrainian and European representatives met to coordinate their positions on ending the war and establishing security guarantees for Ukraine.
Kushner on Tuesday shared a joint U.S.-Ukrainian-European statement on X, which notes that participants agreed that any settlement must respect sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independent decision-making, while providing credible guarantees for Ukraine.
The pre-summit discussions also addressed preventing “dangerous escalation” and strengthening European security after the war, according to the statement.
Peskov said security guarantees were central to the Abu Dhabi talks and that Russia’s delegation was keeping Putin informed.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday that the first day of talks was “very productive,” although “a lot of work” remains to be done.
