Abu Dhabi: trilateral talks end with agreement on a large prisoner exchange – Umerov: “significant differences remain”

The two-day round of trilateral talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi closed on Wednesday, November 11 with a single tangible agreement. Kyiv and Moscow committed to a new large-scale exchange of prisoners of war, but on territory, a ceasefire and security guarantees the distances were not bridged. The round, which opened on Tuesday, November 10, was the first direct meeting of the two warring sides since Geneva in February, as we reported when the talks began in our report on the first day.

For Ukraine, the head of the delegation, Rustem Umerov, summed up the outcome in a post on X. He called the exchange the “main result” of the two days and said the details and practical implementation are still being worked out. On the substance he was direct: “Significant differences remain.” The work that remains is plentiful and hard, he added, but there is room to continue the negotiations. He thanked the American envoys, the Emirates, and Britain, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission, which were in the city for separate consultations with the Ukrainians.

Volodymyr Zelensky, on a state visit to Denmark, was briefed by the negotiators and summed up the result in three points: the humanitarian agreement to prepare the exchange; the discussion on security guarantees, with ending the war as the first step; and broader negotiating formats going forward, with Europeans taking part. The Ukrainian president will see the American envoys on Thursday, November 12 in Dublin. On Tuesday he had already said negotiators were discussing an exchange of “a thousand for a thousand”, possibly even 1,500 for 1,500.

The Russian delegation, headed by Kremlin adviser Vladimir Medinsky, confirmed the agreement. “We agreed in principle on a new big exchange of prisoners. The specific parameters will be announced soon,” Medinsky told reporters, in remarks posted by the Russian Foreign Ministry. On European security architecture he argued that the system that applied after Yalta and Potsdam “works very badly” and that the two sides found common ground on some points but not on others. Of the Europeans in Abu Dhabi he was dismissive: “We did not communicate with them. We don’t quite understand in what capacity they are here.”

Kushner and Witkoff to Moscow, then Dublin

Jared Kushner, who mediates together with Steve Witkoff, spoke of a “very difficult but productive” meeting. The American side believes the “largest humanitarian release of prisoners” was agreed, with the final number to be settled on Thursday. Territory, according to Kushner, remains the hardest issue, while progress was recorded on the security framework for the day after the war. The two envoys are going to Moscow to brief Vladimir Putin, as Kushner said they see “some openings and some opportunities”, and then on to Dublin. Those contacts will also examine whether Europeans can join a multilateral negotiating format.

David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, assessed that there is momentum for a solution before the end of the year and asked that the next round be multilateral, with Europe at the table. If the exchange takes place on the scale being discussed, it will far exceed the exchange of 540 prisoners mediated by the Emirates in late October and will reach or exceed the “thousand for a thousand” agreed in Istanbul in May 2025. These are the parties’ own statements, reported as made.