Prisoner swap moves talks forward as Ukraine–Russia negotiations grind on

Ukraine and Russia have wrapped up a second day of US-brokered talks in the United Arab Emirates with a concrete, if limited, result: an agreement to exchange 314 prisoners of war.

The deal was confirmed on Thursday by Steve Witkoff, who is leading the American mediation effort alongside Jared Kushner. Writing on X, Witkoff said that while “significant work remains,” steps like the prisoner exchange show that “sustained diplomatic engagement is delivering tangible results and advancing efforts to end the war in Ukraine.”

From the Russian side, the tone was cautiously optimistic. Kirill Dmitriev told state media before the session concluded that “things are moving forward in a good, positive direction.” He added that discussions were also touching on the broader task of restoring relations between Russia and the United States, including through a US-Russia economic working group. At the same time, Dmitriev criticised what he described as attempts by European countries to “disrupt the progress” and “meddle” in the negotiations.

The talks mark a continuation of a diplomatic track that has so far delivered modest gains but avoided the war’s hardest questions. The first round of trilateral negotiations in late January made little headway on territory, still the core obstacle. Moscow is demanding that Kyiv cede a fifth of the Donetsk region it continues to control, a condition the government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy has flatly rejected.

Even so, the prisoner exchange stands out as a rare point of agreement. Russia’s state news agency RIA reported later on Thursday that both sides had already exchanged 157 prisoners of war each, citing the defence ministry. Three civilians from Russia’s Kursk region were also returned.

It was the first such exchange in several months. The last successful swap took place on October 2, 2025, under the so-called “Istanbul agreements” that followed three rounds of direct talks in Turkey earlier that year.