Russia and Ukraine agree to a large prisoner exchange

Russia and Ukraine agreed to a large exchange of prisoners of war, both sides said Wednesday as two days of US-mediated talks concluded with no major breakthrough on ending Moscow's nearly 5-year-old full-scale invasion.

Hopes had been low for any significant development in the first meeting in nine months between the delegations.

The talks lasted just under two hours Wednesday, after a four-hour session the previous day.

"One of the positives is we agreed that we're going to have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners, which we're going to finalize the numbers tomorrow," said Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, after the Abu Dhabi talks ended.

Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, and Rustem Umerov, who led Kyiv's contingent, confirmed the planned POW exchange, although Medinsky noted the agreement was "in principle."

Alexander Zorin, a deputy chief of the General Staff's information department who attended the talks, told Russian state TV it would be one of the biggest such swaps since 1,000 soldiers from each side returned home last year.

The latest exchange could take place in the next two or three weeks, he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said President Vladimir Putin will be briefed by Medinsky and US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and then determine Moscow's future course of action," said Lavrov.

Kushner and Witkoff will travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet with Putin, then fly to Dublin for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is in Ireland for the European Political Community summit.

Zelenskyy heralded the resumption of peace negotiations and insisted that Europe must play a role in them.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY: "So, first of all, that's good that negotiations are not blocked. Yes. And the second point is good, as I said, that the role of Europe began to be stronger. And this is important. Yes, of course, we need, it's up to Europe and us. Yes, not about Russia and the United States. We need to choose who will represent Europe. And It's important. We need to choose very concrete personalities, leaders of Europe, they will represent Europe and we need it to do in November because I think and we count that negotiations will continue and we will need concrete people."