Abu Dhabi talks end with Russia-Ukraine deal on prisoner swap 

ABU DHABI — Russian and Ukrainian negotiators agreed to a major prisoner exchange at two days of US-mediated peace talks in Abu Dhabi that ended on Wednesday without a breakthrough on the central issues dividing the two sides.At ​their first negotiations in nine months, the two countries agreed in principle to exchange prisoners of war and to determine the numbers on Thursday.US envoy Jared Kushner said the new ‌swap would be the “biggest humanitarian release of prisoners” in the 4-1/2-year-old war, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said its scope would be “significant.”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.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.Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters in Dublin on Wednesday that Ukraine was focused on achieving progress on an accord this year.”A lot will depend today on the format of the dialogue of the American and Russian sides tomorrow… I believe ​it is also very important for the Americans…to achieve a result this year, in my view, given what we are seeing happening,” he said.Answering a Euronews question during the post-talks briefing as to when it is time for a face-to-face meeting between Zelensky 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.”The US envoy said that they “engage very directly” with Ukraine’s president and that they speak to his team every day, while they also “engage very closely with President Putin and with his team to whom we are speaking to on a daily basis as well.”Kushner said the people of Ukraine and Russia, as well as Europe “would like to see this war ended,” “so we are working very, very hard to try and make that happen.”Kushner said he and Steve Witkoff would travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, before heading to Dublin for talks with Zelensky.Davyd Arakhamia, head of President Zelensky’s Servant of the People faction in parliament, and a member of Ukraine’s negotiating delegation, described the Abu Dhabi talks as among the most difficult, saying Russian representatives appeared to have arrived with particularly strict instructions from Moscow.He credited the US delegation with helping move the discussions forward by focusing on the post-war future of both countries.”We have made really significant progress,” Arakhamia said, calling for another round of negotiations to be scheduled as soon as possible and expressing hope that a solution could be found before the new year.Zelensky, on a state visit to Copenhagen, said he had been briefed on the outcome of the talks during a video call with Ukraine’s negotiators.”The parties discussed their views on guaranteeing security, and it is necessary that the first step be ending this war and providing security guarantees for Ukraine,” he said, adding that broader negotiating formats involving European representatives were also under discussion.Russia continues to insist that Ukraine withdraw from territory in the eastern Donbas region still under Kyiv’s control, while Zelensky has maintained that territorial decisions must be addressed at the leaders’ level.Moscow has also rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire, insisting on broader security arrangements before agreeing to halt hostilities.European representatives were present in Abu Dhabi for separate consultations with Ukrainian and US officials but did not participate directly in the trilateral negotiations.Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said his delegation had not held talks with European representatives and questioned their presence.”No, we did not communicate with them. We don’t really understand in what capacity they are here,” Medinsky told reporters.He also said Moscow received no concrete peace initiatives or proposals from European countries, questioning what there was to discuss with them.”We don’t really understand what there is to discuss with them,” he told reporters.Umerov said Kyiv’s delegation would hold further discussions with European partners on Wednesday.Washington indicated that European countries should eventually join the negotiations, particularly as discussions expand to the continent’s future security arrangements.Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine accused each other of launching attacks overnight, despite the Abu Dhabi peace talks.Russia hit six electricity substations in central Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said, and an attack on a market in the Odesa region killed three people. A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person in ‌Russia’s Belgorod region, ⁠local officials said.