During talks in Abu Dhabi between Ukraine, the US and Russia, an agreement was reached on a large-scale prisoner exchange. Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to the Russian President, stated that the ‘specific details’ of the exchange would be announced shortly.
The trilateral talks began on 10 November in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Prior to this, the Ukrainian delegation held meetings with representatives from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission. They were also due to be joined by US Special Envoys Steve Whitcoff and Jared Kushner.
On the first day of the talks, Radio Free Europe reported on an agreement regarding the exchange, citing a source close to the Ukrainian negotiating team. Following the delegation’s briefing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the parties had discussed the necessity and possible parameters of humanitarian measures.
“The release of prisoners is a priority. We discussed in detail the content of security guarantees for Ukraine and the basis for their long-term implementation. We need real tools to prevent any recurrence of war. The need for de-escalation measures was also discussed,” Zelenskyy said.
The last major prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia took place in October. On that occasion, 261 Ukrainian servicemen were released from captivity. The Coordination Headquarters clarified that more than half of them had been taken prisoner in 2022, including during the defence of Mariupol. A further nine of those released were civilians.
The original version of this article first appeared on Glob-News.com.