Ukraine and Russia plan record prisoner swap
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia agreed to the exchange during peace talks, and European representatives will join the next round.
DUBLIN: Ukraine and Russia are preparing for what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says will be their largest exchange of prisoners of war. Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Russia had agreed to the swap and called it a concrete result of the ongoing diplomatic talks aimed at ending the war.
He spoke to reporters in Dublin after meeting Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two envoys for US President Donald Trump. The meeting followed US-mediated peace talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Zelenskyy said the progress there gave him hope that the war could end.
Europe at the table
The Ukrainian president said he expected more meetings and wanted each round of talks to produce results that would bring the two sides closer to peace. He also said European representatives would join the negotiating team for the next round and have a voice in the discussions.
Zelenskyy said Europe’s role mattered because the war is being fought on European soil and Ukraine hopes to join the European Union. He also said European involvement would be important in talks about Ukraine’s future prosperity and the security guarantees it would need.
Witkoff and Kushner also met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday. That meeting took place a day after the latest round of talks in Abu Dhabi ended. The US envoys have been involved in discussions with both sides as Washington tries to move the peace process forward.
The proposed exchange is one of the results Zelenskyy pointed to as he described what the talks had achieved so far. He said the next meetings should build on that progress.
