A Ukrainian soldier embraces a loved one at a prisoner exchange event in May 2025. Photo: President of Ukraine, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The United States is working toward what would be the largest prisoner exchange of the Russia-Ukraine war, U.S. envoy Jared Kushner said on Thursday, as Russia and Ukraine agreed to expand the next round of peace talks to include European nations.
"We are also working toward what would be the largest prisoner exchange of the war, potentially reuniting thousands of people with their families," Kushner wrote on X, without giving details of the deal. The announcement came after two days of U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi, the first negotiations between the two sides in nine months.
The largest exchange of the war
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators agreed in principle to a major prisoner exchange at the Abu Dhabi talks, which ended on Wednesday, with the numbers to be finalized on Thursday. Kushner described the planned swap as the "biggest humanitarian release of prisoners" in the four-and-a-half-year-old war, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said its scope would be "significant."
Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, confirmed the planned exchange, although he noted the agreement was "in principle." Alexander Zorin, a senior Russian military official who attended the talks, said it would be one of the biggest such swaps since 1,000 soldiers from each side returned home last year, and said the latest exchange could take place in the next two or three weeks.
Russia and Ukraine have swapped prisoners of war from time to time during the conflict, but have remained far apart on the terms of a peace settlement. Hopes had been low for a major breakthrough in the first meeting in nine months between the delegations, and both sides said major differences remained despite the progress on the exchange.
Europe gets a seat at the table
Kushner said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to expand the next round of talks to include European nations. Expansion of the talks with European partners would allow the tackling of "broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia," Kushner said.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said earlier that President Vladimir Putin had agreed to let European representatives join the next round of talks, though the Russian leader also urged Washington to work with its European allies to understand whether they wanted peace or war in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy welcomed the news of a European presence at the next round of the U.S.-brokered talks, saying he hoped the agenda would include efforts toward ceasefires and defusing the conflict. He was speaking after talks in Dublin with U.S. envoys Witkoff and Kushner, who had traveled to Moscow to meet Putin before flying on to meet the Ukrainian leader.
Kushner said both Ukraine and Russia needed clarity on postwar security arrangements, and that European countries, the European Union and NATO have to be involved in the process. He said he and Witkoff will continue to work with both sides, and expressed confidence they would find a pathway to peace.
Big gaps remain
Despite the progress on prisoners and the wider table, the two sides remain far apart on the central questions of the war. Both Russia and Ukraine said progress had been made in Abu Dhabi, but U.S. mediators said differences remained on major issues, including territory. Russia holds about a fifth of Ukraine, and Kyiv refuses to give up the rest of its eastern Donbas region.
"The reality is there is no trust right now between the sides and that is to be expected after a conflict like this," Kushner said. Washington was encouraged by the progress made, he said, but added that significant differences remained.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. President Donald Trump, who vowed to end the war when he returned to the White House, has yet to reach a deal on that front, but the resumption of direct talks and the planned prisoner exchange mark the most concrete movement toward an agreement in months.
Sources: Reuters, The Wire, Business Standard.