Russia and Ukraine have agreed their biggest ever release of prisoners after two days of U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi, U.S. envoy Jared Kushner told reporters on Wednesday (November 11, 2026).
“One of the positives is that we agreed that we’re going to have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners, and we’re going to finalise the numbers tomorrow,” he said.
Mr. Kushner and fellow U.S. mediator Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow on Thursday (November 12, 2026) to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, and then to Dublin to debrief Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The two sides have exchanged thousands of captured soldiers throughout the almost five-year war, started by Russia’s 2022 invasion.
But diplomatic talks have so far failed to move the two sides closer to an agreement to halt the fighting, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people.
The two days of conversations in Abu Dhabi appeared to fit that mould, with the prisoner exchange and agreement to carry on talking the only concrete outcomes mentioned by any side in post-talks press statements.
Russian envoy Vladimir Medinsky and Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov also said a large scale prisoner exchange had been agreed, adding the numbers would be announced later.
Delegations from Moscow and Kyiv on Wednesday (November 11, 2026) held a second straight day of U.S.-brokered talks on ways of ending the war started by Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine nearly five years ago.
The envoys met for four hours on Tuesday (November 10) in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, which was chosen as a neutral venue. The talks, mediated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff, were due to conclude later Wednesday (November 11).
The context of the negotiations has changed since the last meeting in February in Geneva. The Trump administration has to reckon with Democrats, who could demand more support for Ukraine, taking over the U.S. Congress in January following the U.S. midterm elections.
Also, Russia’s wartime economy is under heavy strain, and Ukraine is reeling from devastating aerial attacks on its power grid.
Mr. Umerov said that Wednesday (November 11) would begin with three-way talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States, with Kyiv’s delegation meeting afterwards with European officials.
Moscow doesn’t want European countries, which are concerned about Russia’s conduct and broader intentions on the continent, involved in the direct negotiations.
However, representatives of European governments, the European Union and NATO were in Abu Dhabi and were consulting with the Ukrainian delegation, officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday’s (November 10) session was “constructive and quite substantive”.
The talks were largely about humanitarian issues, including possible prisoner exchanges and returning Ukrainian civilians in captivity, as well as children taken from the country, he said.
Security guarantees also were discussed, he said. However, Russia and Ukraine have shown no sign of a willingness to compromise on their demands.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the meeting “very productive,” while cautioning that a breakthrough on stopping the war will take time.
The Abu Dhabi talks are being held against the backdrop of continued fighting on the front line, where little territory has changed hands this year.
Meanwhile, both countries are battering each other with long-range missiles and drones.
Overnight, Russia struck the southern Zaporizhzhia region and the eastern city of Kharkiv, wounding seven civilians and damaging property.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said that air defences downed 627 Ukrainian drones overnight, 150 of them over the region around St. Petersburg, according to the regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko.
He said the drones started a fire at the port of Ust-Luga, one of the main facilities for Russian oil exports, injuring three workers.
Published – November 11, 2026 04:21 pm IST
