Russian and Ukrainian delegations meeting in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday agreed to a large-scale exchange of prisoners of war, officials on both sides confirmed, even as the latest round of U.S.-mediated talks broke up without a breakthrough on ending the nearly five-year war.

Russia's delegation was led by Vladimir Medinsky, a longtime aide to President Vladimir Putin, while Ukraine's side was headed by Rustem Umerov, according to NPR's reporting on the talks. It was the first such meeting between the two delegations in nine months, and expectations going in had been low for any real movement.

White House adviser Jared Kushner, who helped broker the session alongside special envoy Steve Witkoff, told reporters the coming swap would be the single biggest humanitarian release of prisoners since the war began, though the exact number of people involved was still being finalized. He said the exchange could take place within the next two to three weeks and predicted it would help "reunite families, build trust and create momentum toward peace."

What was actually agreed

Beyond the prisoner swap, the Abu Dhabi session focused heavily on humanitarian questions, including the return of Ukrainian civilians held in Russian custody, according to the Washington Post's account of the negotiations. The two sides made no immediate joint statement, and officials cautioned that humanitarian progress has not translated into movement on the war's central sticking point: territory.

"UKRAINE WILL NOT GIVE IN TO DEMANDS THAT WE CEDE OUR OCCUPIED LAND IN EXCHANGE FOR PEACE."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave what PBS NewsHour described as a muted welcome to the swap, calling it a positive step while reiterating that he would not accept Moscow's demand that Kyiv formally cede the eastern Donbas region it still partly controls. He said he planned to meet with the American negotiators directly once they wrapped up a separate round of travel in the region.

The timing underscored how far apart the two sides remain on the war's endgame even as smaller, concrete steps move forward. Kushner and Witkoff's Abu Dhabi stop came immediately before they traveled on for a separate, closely watched meeting with Putin himself, a sign of how compressed and fast-moving the diplomatic calendar around the war has become.

A pattern of incremental deals

Prisoner exchanges have been one of the few areas where Russia and Ukraine have found workable, if limited, common ground throughout the war, with UAE-brokered swaps dating back to 2024. Humanitarian specialists say the exchanges matter enormously to the families involved even when they do little to resolve the underlying conflict. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv has released final figures on how many prisoners will be included this time, and both governments are expected to finalize logistics in the coming weeks.

For now, officials on both sides describe the relationship as fragile but not frozen — a dynamic that will be tested again as the broader territorial negotiations resume.