Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi end with prisoner exchange agreement

According to Al Jazeera, Russia's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said both sides had agreed on a large-scale prisoner swap and that mutual understanding had been achieved on some issues[1]. NPR reports that Medinsky noted the agreement was "in principle."[2]US envoy Jared Kushner told reporters, as quoted by NPR, that "we're going to have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners, which we're going to finalize the numbers tomorrow"[2].According to dpa reporting carried by Yahoo News, the Russian General Staff spoke of more than 1,000 prisoners to be handed over by each side over the next two to three weeks[3].Al Jazeera reports that Kushner called it "a very tough meeting but a productive one"[1]. The outlet adds that he said territorial issues would be the hardest to settle but that "progress" was made on a post-war security framework[1].The Hill reports that Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov cautioned significant differences remain and that there is "a great deal of difficult work ahead"[4].According to NPR, Kushner said he and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, then fly to Dublin, Ireland, to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.[2] NPR adds that Kushner said one of the goals of the Moscow meeting is to try to get Europeans added to the talks.[2]The Washington Post reports that the talks exposed a deepening split between the U.S. and European visions of how to approach Russia.[5]