# In Abu Dhabi, a Prisoner-Swap Deal and Little Else

- Link: https://www.o0justjoseph0o.com/in-abu-dhabi-a-prisoner-swap-deal-and-little-else/
- Published: 2026-11-12T04:34:51+05:00
- Author: admin

Two days of trilateral talks between the United States, Russia and Ukraine in Abu
Dhabi ended on November 11 with an agreement in principle on a large-scale prisoner
exchange and almost nothing else.

The exchange could involve between 1,000 and 1,500 people on each side, according
to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who spoke in Dublin as the talks concluded.
He said Kyiv has always sought an all-for-all exchange and could not understand 
why “thousands more” should wait in captivity.

Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said territorial exchanges were out of
the question, according to Russian state media. Ukraine’s proposal for an energy
ceasefire was rejected on the grounds that the delegation had no mandate to discuss
it. Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said “significant differences remain.”

The diplomatic breakthrough was structural rather than substantive: Washington is
now seeking to widen the frame beyond Ukraine’s future to European security arrangements,
potentially bringing European governments into a process that has largely excluded
them.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are due in Moscow on November 12 to meet
President Vladimir Putin, then in Dublin to meet Zelenskyy. Whether that produces
movement or simply more activity is the open question. “It has not been substantive,”
Paul Saunders of the Center for the National Interest told RFE/RL of the progress
so far.

_Source: RFE/RL, Nov. 11, 2026. Photo: comedian44, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Illustrative — Abu Dhabi skyline._