Ukraine peace talks end with prisoner swap but no breakthrough

The prisoner swap was the only concrete result of the first direct negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow in nine months, Euronews reported. The talks followed a failed round in Geneva in February and came after the two countries agreed in Istanbul in May 2025 to exchange 1,000 prisoners each without reaching a ceasefire.

U.S. envoy Jared Kushner announced the agreement on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, saying the final number of prisoners 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 confirmed the planned exchange, though neither side gave details on its timing or scale.

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 Washington Post described the outcome as a prisoner swap but little else, while The Guardian reported progress on prisoners but not on peace.

The talks ended without agreement on the issues dividing the two sides. Russia continues to insist that Ukraine withdraw from territory in the eastern Donbas region still under Kyiv's control, and Moscow has rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire, saying it wants broader security arrangements first. Zelenskyy has maintained that territorial decisions must be addressed at the leaders' level.

On the possibility of a leaders' meeting, Kushner told Euronews that "we have a little bit more work we need to do to get there and we are pushing a boulder uphill." He said the Russians would like to see more progress made first, and that "clearly there is not great trust or love between the leaders." Kushner said he and Steve Witkoff would travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet Putin, before heading to Dublin for talks with Zelenskyy.

Davyd Arakhamia, a member of Ukraine's negotiating delegation, called the Abu Dhabi talks among the most difficult and said Russian representatives appeared to have arrived with particularly strict instructions from Moscow. He credited the U.S. delegation with moving discussions forward by focusing on the post-war future and called for another round of negotiations as soon as possible, expressing hope for a solution before the new year. Zelenskyy, on a state visit to Copenhagen, said the parties had discussed views on guaranteeing security and that the first step must be ending the war and providing security guarantees for Ukraine.

Europe's role remains unsettled. European representatives held separate consultations with Ukrainian and U.S. officials in Abu Dhabi but did not take part directly in the trilateral talks, Euronews reported. Medinsky said his delegation had not communicated with them and questioned their presence. Washington indicated European countries should eventually join as discussions expand to the continent's future security arrangements.