Abu Dhabi peace talks end with prisoner exchange agreement as US envoys prepare to meet Putin

Ukraine and Russia have agreed in principle to a major prisoner exchange following two days of US-mediated peace talks in Abu Dhabi, although negotiations ended without a breakthrough on the central issues dividing the two sides, Euronews reports from the UAE.

US envoy Jared Kushner announced the agreement on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, saying the final number of prisoners to be exchanged would be determined on Thursday.

"One of the positives is we agreed that we're going to have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners, which we're going to finalise the numbers tomorrow," Kushner said.

Ukraine's chief negotiator Rustem Umerov and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Medinsky also confirmed the planned exchange, although neither side provided further details on its timing or scale.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that negotiators had been discussing an exchange of 1,000 prisoners from each side, potentially rising to 1,500 each.

The agreement marks the most concrete — and so far the only — outcome of the first direct negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow in nine months, following an earlier round in Geneva in February this year that failed to produce a breakthrough.

During negotiations in Istanbul in May 2025, the two countries also agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each despite failing to reach a ceasefire agreement.

Answering a Euronews question during the post-talks briefing as to when it is time for a face to face meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin, Kushner said that "we have a little bit more work we need to do to get there and we are pushing a boulder uphill."

"Just to be transparent, I think what the Russians have said is that they would like to see more progress made before that happens," as "clearly there is not great trust or love between the leaders," the US envoy told Euronews, but that "it will be very important for the leaders to come together to finalize because it is really only the leaders that can make those final decisions."