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Ukraine and Russia have agreed to carry out their largest prisoner-of-war exchange to date, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday, calling the agreement a “real result” of negotiations aimed at ending the war.
Speaking to reporters after meeting U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law and special envoy Jared Kushner in Dublin, Zelenskyy said Russia had agreed to the exchange, according to Anadolu Agency.
“It will be the biggest exchange of war prisoners,” Zelenskyy said. “This is a real result. This is very important.”
He said progress during talks in Abu Dhabi had given him “hope” that the war could be brought to an end, adding that further meetings were expected and each round should deliver concrete results.
Zelenskyy said European representatives would participate in the next round of talks as part of the negotiating team rather than separately.
“They will have a voice,” he said, stressing that European participation was important because the war was taking place in Europe and because of future security guarantees and prosperity.
Kushner also emphasized Europe’s role, saying an agreement could not be finalized “without the Europeans at the table.”
He said U.S. negotiators had told Russian President Vladimir Putin that European participation was important.
Witkoff met Putin before traveling to Dublin and said progress had been made in their discussions. Putin also met Witkoff and Kushner in Moscow on Thursday, a day after the latest U.S.-mediated Ukraine peace talks concluded in Abu Dhabi.
The negotiations have also expanded into discussions about Europe’s broader security architecture, according to the Financial Times.
Zelenskyy said the U.S.-Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi included “a lot of talk about security guarantees” and warned European leaders to pay attention.
“When the Americans and Russians talk about these, it’s not just about Ukraine; in fact, it’s more about some kind of new security framework between Europe and Russia,” he said. “And we find this approach a bit strange.”
The FT reported that Russian representatives raised European security arrangements in Abu Dhabi while refusing to meet European officials.
Russian officials have repeatedly called for a ban on further NATO expansion and military exercises near Russia’s borders, as well as the withdrawal of troops and military equipment from NATO’s eastern flank.
According to the FT, many European capitals view those demands as an attempt by Moscow to restore its sphere of influence and limit the sovereignty of EU and NATO members.
European Council President Antonio Costa, who hosted Zelenskyy and other leaders in Dublin, rejected calls to redesign the continent’s security architecture.
“There is no need to reinvent the wheel,” Costa said, arguing that Europe had a functioning security structure until it was undermined and ultimately destroyed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Putin said Thursday that Moscow’s proposals for a new security architecture should be discussed before the war ends.
“What do we hear from the Europeans? No, only after peace in Ukraine. But they are planning to send troops there after peace in Ukraine. That’s continuing the war,” Putin said.
Witkoff and Kushner told Putin in televised remarks that Washington wanted European countries involved in future negotiations with Russia and had begun discussions with allies over the continent’s security arrangements.
A person briefed on the Abu Dhabi negotiations told the FT that wider European security had been discussed, though not in detail.
Russia’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky told state television after the talks that Moscow wanted to create “a new comprehensive European security system that will serve as a new Yalta and Potsdam,” replacing the international order established after World War II.
Three officials told the Financial Times that concern was growing in European capitals that agreeing to discuss wider continental defense and security issues could become the price for securing a place at the Ukraine negotiations.
Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal warned that Europe risked being led into “a trap” by discussing its security architecture in exchange for a role in the talks, saying Putin had long sought influence over the sovereignty of NATO states.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Europe should only consider negotiations over its security architecture after Russia agrees to a peace deal.
“Right now, taking the focus to the European security architecture is actually diverting the attention away from where it actually should be, which is a ceasefire stopping the killing in Ukraine,” Kallas said.
The debate has also increased pressure on European leaders to decide who should represent the continent in possible future negotiations.
According to the FT, European leaders are expected to discuss the issue in Dublin with the goal of agreeing on a representative this month. Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the EU all sent delegations to meetings on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi talks.
“Europe’s security cannot be discussed without a European voice at the table,” Costa said. “That European voice needs to be a team effort between European nations, the European Union and NATO.”
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