Ukraine Reports Major Gains in Russia Talks as Prisoner Swap Nears

(MENAFN) Ukraine’s chief negotiator said Wednesday that Kyiv and Moscow have achieved “huge progress” in U.S.-brokered negotiations covering “security and prosperity,” as a prisoner exchange between the two sides edges closer.

Rustem Umerov, who also leads Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, spoke at a joint news conference in the Emirati capital after the latest round concluded. He credited U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for their role and noted that talks have taken place in multiple formats over the past year, some involving European participants.

“There is a huge progress going on on the securities, prosperity issues, and we will be talking about this later on,” Umerov said. He offered no further detail.

David Arakhamia, who leads the ruling Servant of the People faction in parliament, also addressed reporters. He called the two-day trilateral session “one of the toughest,” and said he hopes the prisoner swap between Moscow and Kyiv, announced earlier by Kushner, will cover a “big” number of people.

Arakhamia said the parties are nearing agreement to broaden the talks from a three-way format to a multilateral one. He also pointed to “big progress” on other matters that, he said, cannot yet be made public.

“And I encourage you guys to visit Moscow and then come back to us to Dublin, and then … have a second session and … announce the date for the next session (of peace talks) as soon as possible, because I think that we have a good momentum to bring the solution before the new year comes,” Arakhamia added.

The negotiations, which opened Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, marked the first direct three-way peace sessions since the Geneva talks in February.

Kushner told reporters that he and Witkoff will fly to Moscow on Thursday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. There, he said, they would “finalize the numbers” for the prisoner swap agreed during the two days of talks.

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