A large-scale prisoner exchange emerged as the only tangible result of two days of US-mediated talks between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi, with no breakthrough on a ceasefire or territorial disputes. Kushner told Euronews that "we are pushing a boulder uphill" for a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting.
Ukraine and Russia have agreed in principle to a major prisoner exchange following two days of US-mediated peace talks in Abu Dhabi, although negotiations ended without a breakthrough on the central issues dividing the two sides, Euronews reports from the UAE.
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US envoy Jared Kushner announced the agreement on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, saying the final number of prisoners to be exchanged would be determined on Thursday.
"One of the positives is we agreed that we're going to have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners, which we're going to finalise the numbers tomorrow," Kushner said.
Ukraine's chief negotiator Rustem Umerov and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Medinsky also confirmed the planned exchange, although neither side provided further details on its timing or scale.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that negotiators had been discussing an exchange of 1,000 prisoners from each side, potentially rising to 1,500 each.
The agreement marks the most concrete — and so far the only — outcome of the first direct negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow in nine months, following an earlier round in Geneva in February this year that failed to produce a breakthrough.
During negotiations in Istanbul in May 2025, the two countries also agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each despite failing to reach a ceasefire agreement.
Answering a Euronews question during the post-talks briefing as to when it is time for a face to face meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin, Kushner said that "we have a little bit more work we need to do to get there and we are pushing a boulder uphill."
"Just to be transparent, I think what the Russians have said is that they would like to see more progress made before that happens," as "clearly there is not great trust or love between the leaders," the US envoy told Euronews, but that "it will be very important for the leaders to come together to finalize because it is really only the leaders that can make those final decisions."
The US envoy said that they "engage very directly" with Ukraine's president and that they speak to his team every day, while they also "engage very closely with President Putin and with his team to whom we are speaking to on a daily basis as well."
Kushner concluded the answer to Euronews saying that the people of Ukraine and Russia, as well as Europe "would like to see this war ended," "so we are working very, very hard to try and make that happen and (the Putin-Zelenskyy meeting) will be a critical step towards achieving that.”
US envoys head to Moscow
Kushner said he and Steve Witkoff would travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, before heading to Dublin for talks with Zelenskyy.
Davyd Arakhamia, head of President Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People faction in parliament, and a member of Ukraine's negotiating delegation, described the Abu Dhabi talks as among the most difficult, saying Russian representatives appeared to have arrived with particularly strict instructions from Moscow.
He credited the US delegation with helping move the discussions forward by focusing on the post-war future of both countries.
"We have made really significant progress," Arakhamia said, calling for another round of negotiations to be scheduled as soon as possible and expressing hope that a solution could be found before the new year.
Zelenskyy, on a state visit to Copenhagen, said he had been briefed on the outcome of the talks during a video call with Ukraine's negotiators.
"The parties discussed their views on guaranteeing security, and it is necessary that the first step be ending this war and providing security guarantees for Ukraine," he said, adding that broader negotiating formats involving European representatives were also under discussion.
Russia continues to insist that Ukraine withdraw from territory in the eastern Donbas region still under Kyiv's control, while Zelenskyy has maintained that territorial decisions must be addressed at the leaders' level.
Moscow has also rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire, insisting on broader security arrangements before agreeing to halt hostilities.
European representatives were present in Abu Dhabi for separate consultations with Ukrainian and US officials but did not participate directly in the trilateral negotiations.
Russia's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said his delegation had not held talks with European representatives and questioned their presence.
"No, we did not communicate with them. We don't really understand in what capacity they are here," Medinsky told reporters.
He also said Moscow received no concrete peace initiatives or proposals from European countries, questioning what there was to discuss with them.
"We don't really understand what there is to discuss with them," he told reporters.
Umerov said Kyiv's delegation would hold further discussions with European partners on Wednesday.
Washington indicated that European countries should eventually join the negotiations, particularly as discussions expand to the continent's future security arrangements.